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Class 


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Book 


56 


Gowrigftt 


N° 


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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



" Fight the good fight of Faith, lay hold on eternal Life, 
whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good pro- 
fession before many witnesses." — I TlM. vi. 12. 



That , , 

having been duly instructed in the doctrines 
and ditties of the Christian Religion , as con- 
fessed by the 

aftrangeltcal Hutfieran Cfmrcfj, 

was received into full communion with 



by the solemn rite ^confirmation, on the 

, day of ....... 

in the year of our Lord ip 

JHastor. 



HEAVENWARD 



a OMbe for goutfn 



BY 

REV. JUNIUS B. REMENSNYDER, D. D., LL. D., 

j i 

Author of "Six Days of Creation," " Personality of Luther/' 

" Doom Eternal/' "Lutheran Manual/' "Atonement 

and Modern Thought/' etc., etc. 



A NEW AND REVISED EDITION. 



PHILADELPHIA, PA.: 

LTJTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 



Two Copies Keceivtti 

APR 8 1908 



wopyriiffni tniry 
7)7cor 2 3 (qot 

2 (3 2 3 ^ 
COPY B. 






Copyright, 1908, 

BY THE 

LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 



FOREWORD. 



This little volume owes its origin to the con- 
viction of the author, that a book of its character 
is demanded both by the particular state of the 
times, and the condition and wants of the Church. 
Its design is to lift the aspirations of youth from 
perishing earthly prizes to a heavenward aim, 
and to an incorruptible crown. It also counsels 
the pilgrim, who has already set out for the better 
country, how he may overcome amid the many 
perils that beset him, and ever rise higher, in his 
race for eternal life. And as the Blessed Goal is 
reached, and the portals of the heavenly city 
appear, it presents to the Christian those comfort- 
ing promises and assurances of Scripture, which 
shall bear him up amid the swelling of the Jordan 
of Death, and bring him in triumph to the celes- 
tial shore. 

The Heavenward of the author, is no effort 
of Nature to ascend by the guidance of Reason 
to the heights of a pure morality. But it is the 
pilgrimage of Faith, as, in childlike humility, it 
follows the narrow path of Jesus the Crucified, 

(iii) 



IV FOREWORD. 

until it shall see the King in His beauty, and 
rest forever in the bosom of Love. Accordingly, 
the way here pointed out leads by the Cross of 
Christ, and by the Church of God ; the steps of 
ascent to the heights of grace are made to be the 
Word and Sacraments. A piety in the Church, 
is counselled as the only path that surely and 
steadily conducts heavenward. And never was 
there an age, which more than the present, was 
in need of this species of devotional literature. 

New York, March, 1908. 



CONTENTS. 

PART I. 

THE GOOD BEGINNING. 

PAGE 

Chapter I.— The Call 9 

II.— The Condition 13 

" III.— The Decision 17 

" IV. — Confirmation 20 

" V. — The Holy Communion 25 

PART II. 

THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 
Section I. — Dangers. 

Chapter I. —Discouragements 35 

" II.— Trusting to Church Membership 38 

" III. — Backsliding 42 

" IV.— Besetting Sins 45 

" V.— The Christian Warfare 49 

Section 11.— Helps. 

Chapter I.— The Means of Grace : The Word and 

Sacraments 54 

" II. — Prayer 59 

" III,— Devotion, to the Church 64 

" IV.— The Holy Festivals 77 

" V.— Walking in the Steps of the Fathers— 

the Primitive or Apostolic Church 82 

(v) 



VI CONTENTS. 

Section III. — Fruits, 



PAGE 



ChapTErI. — A Precious Experience 94 

" II.— The Imitation of Christ 100 

" III. — Usefulness in the Kingdom of God 105 

44 IV. — Bearing the Cross no 



PART III. 
THE BLESSED GOAI,. 

Chapter I.— Happy Memories 118 

44 II. — Readiness for Death 122 

44 III.— The Victory 126 

44 IV.— The Crown of Life 130 



HEAVENWARD. 




PART r. 
Cfce <®oob 2fcgimttng* 

GOOD beginning does not always 
assure a good ending. The first step, 
however, in any work or undertaking 
is of the utmost importance. He who never 
begins never succeeds. But when resolution 
masters this first great barrier, and the beginning 
is once made, success itself is near. 

And in nothing is this so true as in religion. 
Here, above everywhere else, the soul is wont 
to hesitate at the first step. The beginning is 
what troubles it. It shrinks back, as though the 
gate to the Christian life is of such dread holi- 
ness that it dares not set foot upon its threshold. 
To be a child of God, to walk upon the path of 
piety, seems too great an undertaking. Con- 
firmation it can only view in the far distance. 

(7) 



8 HEAVENWARD. 

The thought of approaching the Holy Supper 
fills it with trembling. The new life seems to it 
a blessed dream, rather than a golden reality. 
Heavenward, to the crown of life, its longings 
can scarcely aspire. 

But the real difficulty here is in the beginning. 
He who takes the first step upon the narrow 
way will find the others to follow far more easily 
than he had supposed. The holy pilgrimage 
once begun, many an obstacle that before had 
loomed up like a great mountain will diminish 
until, like the chained lions in the way of Bun- 
yan's pilgrim, it will be passed by with safety and 
ease. It is at this very point of beginning that 
more souls have failed than anywhere else in the 
Christian race. Had they but begun, they would 
have succeeded ; but because they would not 
summon resolution to take THE first step, they 
did not gain the prize. 

Let us, then, consider the youthful soul in this 
most critical and eventful period, when it debates 
the question of beginning the heavenly pilgrim- 
age and of entering upon the race for eternal life. 



© 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. 9 

CHAPTER I. 

THE CAI,I,. 

II HE reason for our making this beginning in 
' piety is, that we are not left without witness 
of a better country. We are not heathens, but 
we live in a Christian land and time. The light 
of the truth as it is in Jesus shines down to us 
from the holy cradle of Bethlehem. We have 
had Christian parents. In our infancy they con- 
secrated us to God at the altar. And the earliest 
words they taught us, as we bent at their knees^ 
were to lisp loving prayers to the blessed 
Saviour. 

The call, then, to religion comes first from our 
Holy Baptism. We are not out of, but already 
in the Church, by that solemn act of our pious 
parents. As with heartfelt prayers they held us 
up for the baptismal blessing, the Lord elected us 
for His own, adopted us into the covenant, and 
made us holy unto Himself. It was there that we 
were planted into the kingdom of God, and made 
heirs of its privileges and blessings. And now, 
in our conscious years, there comes to us this 
call, this admonition, and this reproof from our 
Holy Baptism. It tells us that as God there 
bestowed upon us His grace, and drew near to 



IO HEAVENWARD. 

us in blessing, so it is a despising of the heav- 
enly gift, a contempt of the covenant, and a 
wanton disregard of our devout parents, to pay 
no heed to the vows therein made on our behalf. 

Again ; this call comes to us from the Word 
of God. This holy book ever witnesses to us 
of our duty. Its sacred pages, like flaming char- 
acters upon the sky, point out to us the path of 
safety. It tells us that " the fear of the Lord is the 
beginning of wisdom. " It warns us to " flee from 
the wrath to come." It charges us to " remem- 
ber now our Creator in the days of our youth." 
It admonishes us of the danger of postponing a 
moment longer the great step : " Seek ye the 
Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him 
while He is near." It demonstrates the peril of 
seeking the deceptive prizes of earthly pleasure, 
while the undying soul is neglected : " What 
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul ? " 

It therefore appeals to us to " work out our 
salvation with fear and trembling ; " to " give no 
sleep to the eyes or slumber to the eyelids," 
until we find the Holy One of Israel ; yea, even 
to " agonize to enter in at the strait gate." And 
as this Word is a call from God, a message from 
eternity, an invitation to turn aside from death, 
and to enter the golden streets of the heavenly 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. II 

Paradise, O how like a winged arrow it should 
pierce the heart ! 

It is also a call from the Church. The Church 
is the mouthpiece of the living God. By her the 
preached Word is continually addressed to your 
ear. The Holy Ghost adds His unction to the 
blessed gospel she proclaims. And many a time, 
in her courts, has the shaft of conviction entered 
your soul. You have felt yourself a sinner. 
You have seen the danger of refusing to sur- 
render yourself to Christ. You have felt that 
the Spirit strove with you, and that to resist 
would be to grieve Him away, and to quench the 
igniting spark of your eternal hope. The Church 
is now thus calling you. The pastor, whom you 
know and love, has been pleading with you to 
come out and confess your L,ord, and begin the 
Christian pilgrimage. You have heard His 
fervent prayers for you, while with deep anxiety 
He entreated that God would move you, and that 
the Holy Ghost might enlighten you to your 
eternal welfare, and help you to be wise and to 
make the great resolve. 

It comes to you, again, from your conscience. 
That once slept, but now it is awakened. It 
tells you of a guilt which alone atoning mercy 
can blot out. A still small voice whispers to you 
in the day, and suffers you not to rest at night. 



12 HEAVENWARD. 

It tells you that God's Word is true ; that your 
pastor is right ; that delay is hazardous, and that 
your choice is now plainly narrowed down to one 
between duty and pleasure, good and evil, life 
and death. 

Such is this great and solemn call which now 
reaches your ear. Nor is there any evading it. 
It presses upon you, and must be answered. 
Whether, too, it will ever come again or not, is 
a question. In God's mysterious providence, this 
may be your only opportunity. Rejected now, 
the day may soon come when your lament shall 
be, " The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and 
my soul is not saved." 

Now is the day of grace ; 

Now is the Saviour come ; 
The Lord is calling, " Seek my face, 

And I will guide you home." 

A Father bids you speed ; 

Oh, wherefore then delay ? 
He calls in love ; he sees your need ; 

He bids you come to-day. 

To-day the prize is won ; 

The promise is to save ; 
Then, oh, be wise, to-morrow's sun 

May shine upon your grave. 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. 1 3 

CHAPTER II. 

THE CONDITION. 

SHE call to salvation is also accompanied 
with a condition. The call itself is entirely 
of grace. It is a call to pardon. It is a call to 
a ransom bought with blood. And this costly 
price has been paid by another : u The blood of 
Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 
(i John i. 7.) 

A sacrificial Lamb has been provided, who 
paid the debt of our guilt, and who, while deep 
darkness veiled the shuddering earth, drank for 
us a cup of trembling, aye ! a cup of the bitter- 
ness of hell. " He was wounded for our trans- 
gressions ; He was bruised for our iniquities ; the 
chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and 
with His stripes we are healed." Let us not then 
imagine that our salvation is to be bought over 
again, and that any work, or penance, or merit 
of ours is now to purchase it. No ! it is given to 
us freely : " For by grace are ye saved, and that not 
of yourselves ; it is the gift of God." (Eph. ii. 8.) 

But while it requires no work, no ground, no 
merit of ours to accept the call, and to secure the 
gift of grace, there still is a condition. This is 
FAITH. It is the great, the sole, and only condi- 



14 HEAVENWARD. 

tion of salvation. This the Saviour declared to 
Nicodemus, in the memorable words, " For God 
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believetk in Him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." (John iii. 16.) 

And it is written again : " Therefore being 
justified by faith, we have peace with God." 
When the jailer at Philippi fell trembling at the 
feet of Paul, and cried, " What shall I do to be 
saved ? " the reply was given, " Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 
And this is still the only answer to every earnest 
seeker after salvation. 

When, then, your soul cries out anxiously, 
" What shall I do to inherit everlasting life ? I 
hear the warning, awakening call, and I know not 
whither to flee," this is the counsel that comes 
from heaven, " Behold the Lamb of God which 
taketh away the sins of the world." Fly to the 
foot of the cross ! Believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ ! Believe in Him as your full justification ! 
Believe in Him as your Shepherd and Guide ! 
Believe in Him as the gentle Master on whose 
loving bosom you can, like the disciple John, re- 
pose your troubled head, and find blessed peace 
from the wounds of conscience ! 

Thus is faith the saving condition. It is no 
good or meritorious work, but it is simply the 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. 1 5 

hand that takes hold upon Jesus, that appropri- 
ates His atoning blood, and makes His righteous- 
ness our own. We have but to look unto Him, 
uplifted on the tree, and live. No one, either, 
that cometh unto Him, will in any wise be cast 
out. And thus fortified by faith, even though 
we have been the chief of sinners, we shall fear 
no evil, but stand firm amid a dissolving world, 
and before the terrors of the judgment-seat of 
the universe. 

11 Jesus, thy Blood and Righteousness 
My beauty are, my glorious dress ; 
'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed , 
With joy shall I lift up my head. 

" Bold shall I stand in Thy great day, 
For who aught to my charge shall lay ? 
Fully through Thee absolved I am 
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame." 

Beware, too, that you are not led to look upon 
other conditions than this scriptural one of 
Faith as the means of appropriating salvation. 
For many in their human wisdom think it too 
simple, too free, and too exalting to the glory of 
grace. They would therefore heap oppressive 
burdens upon the seeker for life. 

A frequent condition thus imposed is that of a 
new life before one can be assured of justifying 
faith. But " God commendeth His love toward 



1 6 HEAVENWARD. 

us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died 

for us." God does not regenerate us because of 
our faith, but He regenerates us that we may have 
justifying faith. We are not to put our sins first 
from us and then go to God, but to come to Him 
with and in our sins, as the only one who can 
deliver us from their power. Let, then, the sin- 
ner not wait till he become better, but in his 
poverty, in his guilt, and in his woe, cast himself 
upon the mercy of God, crying, " Lord, I would 
believe, help Thou mine unbelief." 

Others tell the troubled soul that there is no 
other way than by high and excited feeling — by 
a sharp and distracting experience, ending in a 
sudden conversion, and a miraculous outpouring 
of the Holy Ghost, and a bursting forth of un- 
speakable rapture, that God can be found. And 
many, by these imprudent counsels, are led to 
search for some other condition than the true and 
scriptural one. And long as they thus grope in 
errror, they will never come to life. 

Luther gives this counsel upon this important 
subject : " Keep it well fixed in your mind that a 
Christian heart is one which hears the word of 
God concerning the forgiveness of sins, and be- 
lieves it without doubting, though it neither sees 
nor feels it, I believe, though I have no especial 
feelings about it, this will afterwards follow of 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. I J 

itself. First true Faith, then the experience and 
effects of Faith with all its blessings." 

This, then, is all that God asks, Faith, which 
He also freely gives the seeker, and which is the 
life-boat by which you shall be borne over the 
billows of time's dangerous sea to the port of 
eternal peace. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE DECISION. 

fOU have now reached a solemn and critical 
hour ! You have heard the call of grace ; 
you have been acquainted with the condition of 
salvation, and now you must make answer. No 
decision greater than this was ever to be made. 
It is to decide for or against God ; for or against 
religion ; for or against yourself. A mistaken 
letter has sometimes cost a throne ; a mistaken 
step has cost a human life ; a mistaken word has 
ruined a good name ; but a mistake here involves 
consequences infinitely more vast and far-reach- 
ing. It is eternal life or death that you are now 
called to decide upon. 

It is a supreme moment for you. Like 
Luther before the Diet of Worms, yours is in- 



1 8 HEAVENWARD. 

deed an august trial, and a cloud of unseen 
witnesses gaze intently thereon. The recording 
angel is waiting to take down the decision ; and 
take heed lest your sentence be that at which the 
Eastern monarch's knees smote together : u Te- 
kee : thou art weighed in the balances and art 
found wanting." (Dan. v. 27.) 

It is your wiee which must now take action. 
It can evade the responsibility no longer. The 
appeal has reached its court, and it must speak 
the final word. Its voice alone can give you 
quiet. If it decides for worldliness, it may give 
you peace for a time ; but it will be a false, de- 
lusive peace. 

Satan, indeed, prompts you to decline the call. 
iVnd ready is he with artful words. He suggests 
postponement, and tasting of the pleasures of sin 
for yet a little season. " To-morrow," he says, 
"will do as well as to-day." He magnifies the 
pleasures of the world, and exaggerates the pains 
of bearing the cross. 

One of his shrewdest suggestions, too, is that 
piety itself should deter the soul from taking the 
great step. That it is not ready ; that it is not 
good enough, and that it will only relapse and 
fall away, and be guilty of still greater sin ; and 
that, therefore, it will be an act of impiety to go 
forward now, that one had better wait until he can 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. 1 9 

live up more fully to his good resolutions. Thus 
plausibly does the crafty old enemy insinuate 
difficulties and obstacles into the way, lest the 
youthful soul obey the voice of the Spirit, and 
resolve with Esther, " I will go in unto the king, 
and if I perish, I perish." (Esther iv. 16.) 

And now then the great question comes, 
What will you do ? Will you hearken to the 
world, or will you yield to the movings of the 
Holy Ghost ? Will you hazard all at an earthly 
altar, or will you choose that good part which 
will eternally satisfy your higher nature, and 
which can never be taken from you ? Will you 
serve sense for its hard wages, or will you walk 
with the children of Zion, and at last be num- 
bered with the saints in glory everlasting ? 

My dear young friend, this solemn question is 
one all for yourself. It is for the still deeps of 
your own bosom. It is between you and your 
God. May, then, a loving heavenly Father give 
you grace to answer it aright ! May He come to 
your rescue, and move you both " to will and to 
do of His good pleasure ! " May He impart to 
you the strength to come out once and for all on 
the Lord's side ! 

In this name, then, and in this simple and holy 
Faith, take now this great, this all-important, 
this eternally decisive step ; and may the bless- 



20 HEAVENWARD. 

ing of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of 
Jacob, rest upon your decision, crowning it with 
life and peace for evermore. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONFIRMATION. 

JjfJAVING now, by the grace of God, decided to 
Wj make the good beginning, the next step is 
a public confession of this, your purpose. Your 
inner faith must be attested by an outward sign. 
To this your own inclinations should prompt you. 
You should desire to tell what God hath done for 
your soul. 

But the Scripture has not left this to choice. 
Confession of the faith that is within us is an ab- 
solute requisite of Christianity. " With the heart 
man believeth unto righteousness ; and with the 
mouth confession is made unto salvation" says the 
apostle. And the Lord Jesus Himself declares, 
" Whosoever therefore shall confess me before 
men, him will I confess also before my Father 
which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny 
me before men, him will I also deny before my 
Father which is in heaven." (Matt. x. 32.) 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. 21 

We must take upon us, in the face of the 
world, the badge of Christian discipleship. This 
confession is to be made by publicly uniting with 
the Church. That is, it is to be done by joining 
ourselves to the fellowship of believers, and by 
keeping the Holy Sacraments according to 
Christ's command, and laboring in the kingdom 
of God. 

Such public confession is also, not only a duty, 
but a most precious help to the inexperienced be- 
liever. The Church surrounds the soul with the 
means of grace, i. <?., those instrumentalities (the 
Word and Sacraments), which have been ap- 
pointed for the special purpose of keeping vigor- 
ous the religious life, guarding it against re- 
lapse, sustaining it with godly edification, and 
helping it so to " run that it may obtain." Who- 
ever seeks to lead a pious life outside of the 
Church, and to enter heaven by some other than 
the true "Door," denies the Lord that bought 
him, and is u a thief and a robber." (John x. i.) 
" He who has not the Church for his mother, can- 
not have God for his Father," is a sound maxim 
of the early Church. 

The Sacrament of Holy Baptism is this 
Door of entrance into the visible Church. But 
where Baptism has been administered in infancy, 
the Church, taking for a type the apostolic laying 



22 HEAVENWARD. 

on of hands (Acts viii. 17), practices confirma- 
tion as the rite of confession for the believing 
adult. Confirmation, as the word itself implies, 
is our personal confirming or ratification of the 
covenant made for us by our parents in our in- 
fant baptism. And to those who therein zeal- 
ously with heart and soul ratify that consecration, 
the everlasting God alike ratifies it, by drawing 
near and granting a new outpouring of the Holy 
Ghost. 

And to this holy and beautiful rite the Church 
now invites you, and your conscience prompts 
you to come. You have, we will presume, for a 
time been numbered with the class of catechu- 
mens. There, led by your pastor and trusted 
spiritual guide, you have been taught to sit at the 
feet of Jesus, and hearken to the regenerating 
word. You have been carefully instructed in the 
truths of salvation, and you have been shown the 
narrow way of life. 

You have heard Sinai, wreathed in flame, thun- 
dering forth the awful judgments of Jehovah 
against sin and disobedience, and giving the Ten 
Commandments as God's law to men. In the 
Creed, you have been led to look upon the Holy 
Child Jesus coming to save us from our sins, and 
to die on Calvary, that the sword of a transgressed 
law might not pierce our hearts ; and you have 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. 23 

been taught of the Holy Ghost, outpoured by 
God, to begin and carry forward within you the 
new life unto sanctification. In the LorcPs 
Prayer, you have been taught to what power to 
resort for protection and defence in every hour of 
need. The Holy Sacraments, too, have been un- 
folded to your heart, that you might draw from 
them their precious treasures of grace. 

You have thus been instructed, and counseled, 
and warned, that you may not lightly take the 
great step before you, but seal your confirmation 
with such a strong resolve that you may never 
break the sacred vow. 

And may this season of religious catechisation 
have been one of unspeakable preciousness to 
you ; and may the hallowed impressions therein 
made be never forgotten until your dying hour, 
and prove the blessing of God unto the salvation 
of your soul ! 

And now the hour of your Confirmation is at 
hand. It is, next to your Holy Baptism, the 
most blessed step in your life. The Church 
above and the Church below, are looking upon 
you. Prepared by fervent wrestling with God 
for His help and blessing, you take your stand at 
the altar. And then, kneeling before the Lord 
of Hosts, while the congregation plead for 
yon, and loving angelic faces look down, you 



24 HEAVENWARD. 

vow that you will be the Lord's and His alone 
for time and for eternity. And then the Hearer of 
prayer and the Covenant-keeping Jehovah at- 
tends, and imparts His benediction, even the Bap- 
tism of the Holy Ghost, and seals you to Himself. 
Rise, then, young disciple ! Henceforth a new 
world opens before thee ! Thou hast entered the 
family of God, the blessed communion of souls. 
The Church on earth welcomes and rejoices over 
thee. Thy pious parents return thanks to God for 
thee, now begotten unto them in bonds of the Gos- 
pel, which neither time nor death can sever. Yea ! 
heaven itself rings with exultant rapture, and 
the angelic choirs strike their golden harps again, 
for " there is joy in the presence of the angels of 
God over one sinner that repenteth." Thou hast 
indeed made a good beginning ; mayest thou 
have none the less blessed and joyful an ending ! 

11 My name is entered on the list, 

I've plighted hand and word, 
To love and live for none but Christ, 

My Saviour and my Lord. 
Ye comrades in the ranks below, 

And ye who wear the crown, 
Witness the irrevocable vow 

That seals me as His own. 

" And I will prove that vow sincere, 
Whate'er the cost may be ; 
Nor weal, nor woe, nor hope nor fear, 
Shall shake my constancy. 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. 25 

For Him I will not love my life, 

But shame and death defy ; 
Undaunted in the hour of strife, 

And meek in victory. 

4 Oh ! happy soldiers they, who serve 

Beneath Thy banner, Lord ! 
And light the task, if Thou but nerve 

The arm to wield the sword. 
The sacred pledge in childhood given, 

To such success assures ; 
And still they hear a voice from heaven 

Repeat, The prize is yours." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE HOLY COMMUNION. 

CONFIRMATION, as a public recognition of 
Holy Baptism, acknowledges the right and 
obligation of the young confessor to a full com- 
munion with the visible Church. He is, there- 
fore, now ready to complete his good beginning, 
by standing at that Holy of Holies, the Lord's 
table, and participating in the mystery of the 
Supper. To it his eyes have often been turned 
with trembling reverence, and with a deep and 



26 HEAVENWARD. 

shrinking sense of unworthiness. But let him 
remember that it is the Supper of his Lord, who 
Himself was tried in all points like as we are, 
who "is touched with the feeling of our infirmi- 
ties," and who u knoweth our frame, and remem- 
bereth that we are dust." And, therefore, let 
him not fear that his desire to obey his Master's 
dying command will bring upon him other than 
a priceless blessing. 

To a proper participation in the Supper, an 
intelligent knowledge of the nature, meaning, 
and design of the Sacrament is of the first im- 
portance. Many Christians, and especially the 
young, go in what we may call a blind faith to 
the Holy Supper. They believe there is some- 
thing infinitely solemn and precious about it — 
but what that something is, to them is a sealed 
letter. But thus the Sacrament loses much of its 
efficacy. Nor is there any reason for such igno- 
rance ; for the word of God is abundantly clear 
in regard to this great subject. 

The words of the Saviour in instituting this 
Sacrament, were, " This is my Body, this is my 
Blood ! These solemn and memorable words are 
what clothe this Sacrament with its most glorious 
pre-eminence. They are the key to its highest and 
deepest, its richest and costliest significance. 
While skeptical reason turns coldly away from 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. 2J 

them, these are the words upon which faith lov- 
ingly and adoringly dwells as it comes to the 
Holy Table. 

It is, as St. Paul makes bold to say, a " com- 
munion of the body and blood of the Lord" O, 
wondrous and incomprehensible grace ! That I, 
a poor, dying, sinful mortal, should be refreshed 
with such heavenly food ! And how, too, this very 
feature of the Holy Communion addresses itself 
to my inmost wants ! I am foul and guilty ; this 
precious Blood shall make me clean. My faith is 
weak and fainting ; this holy Body of the Lord 
shall make it strong, and be in me the germ of 
resurrection to a new spiritual life, mighty to the 
overcoming of temptation, and to faithfulness 
unto the end. Dwelling then upon these most 
sacred words, "This is my Body, this is my 
Blood," faith can never exhaust the priceless 
riches of the Holy Supper ; as led by the Spirit 
it ever attains further, and deeper, and more 
blessed views of that precious stream of grace 
which here flows in its utmost brightness, purity, 
and power. 

The Lord's Supper, again, is, in the most nota- 
ble degree, a Sacrament of confession. " For as 
often," says the apostle, " as ye eat this bread and 
drink this cup, ye do show the Lord^s death till 
He come." It is, therefore, our declaration and 



28 HEAVENWARD. 

testimony to the atoning sufferings and death of 
the crucified Lamb. In it we make a loving con- 
fession of faith. We remember our Lord's pas- 
sion. We remember the night of His betrayal, 
and of the institution of this Supper with His 
dying hand. We remember His struggle and 
sweat of blood in Gethsemane. We remember 
His shame and woe, and His infinite agony, as, 
lifted upon the cross, He expired with a cry that 
pierced the heart of Nature, and opened the 
graves of the dead. 

And remembering, thus, with penitent love and 
sorrow His death, by this our public confession 
we do show it forth to all the world, that this 
miracle of grace may not pass unheeded, and that 
this precious blood may not have been shed in 
vain ; but either become a means of conviction 
and salvation to the impenitent observer, or 
an accusing witness against him in the last 
day. 

It is again a feast of holy ^lnity and fellowship 
of love. Says the Scripture : " For we being 
many are one bread and one body ; for we are all 
partakers of that one bread." " The wine is the 
Blood, the bread is the Body of Christ. We re- 
ceive into us, make by assimilation parts of our- 
selves, that wine, that bread — we become, there- 
fore, by participation of that bread, one Bread, 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. 29 

i. e., one Body, hence the close and literal par- 
ticipation in and with Christ." * 

As, then, by this Holy Communion we are par- 
takers of one and the same Christ, so do we be- 
come one with each other. We are members of 
the same body — branches of the same vine, 
streams of the same fountain — disciples of the 
same common Master. And, therefore, does this 
brotherly meeting and communion at the Lord's 
table pledge us to a most tender and loving unity 
and fellowship of walk, with all true confessors of 
Christ the world over. No distinctions of lan- 
guage, or nation, or riches, or rank, dare separate 
us, but the sacred tie of Christian unity must 
make our hearts, our hopes and aspirations, one 
on earth, even as we shall be one at the Marriage 
Supper of the Lamb, in the glorious assembly and 
Church of the first-born on high. 

Thus, then, to be strengthened by so holy a 
communion with Christ, thus to make a loving 
confession of His death before the world, and thus 
to join in blessed unity with your fellow-believers 
for the sake of the Christ that is in them, are now, 
since your Baptism and Confirmation, your holy 
privilege. Thankfully and joyfully, then, ap- 
proach this love-crowned table. 

The more you feel your unworthiness, the 
* Alford's Greek Testament, Vol. II., p. 55S. 



30 HEAVENWARD. 

greater should be your anxiety to receive the wed- 
ding garment of purity and holy strength herein 
offered. " For this Holy Sacrament hath been in- 
stituted for the special comfort and strengthening 
of those who humbly confess their sins, and who 
hunger and thirst after righteousness."* It is 
not unworthiness, but impenitence and indiffer- 
ence that will turn the sacramental grace into the 
curse that fell upon Judas, for partaking of it with 
a traitor's heart. 

Nevertheless, this most holy audience with 
God, even to those who have joined in it many 
years, is ever a time of searching penitence and of 
devout and prayerful preparation before they enter 
upon it. For the first time, then, it is not strange 
that it should be a moving hour to the young 
communicant. 

St. Paul, therefore, thus advises us for this 
solemn season : u Let a man examine himself and 
so let him eat of that bread and drink of that 
cup." Repair, then, to thy closet, and there ask 
thyself whether thou truly feelest thyself to be an 
undone sinner ? Whether thou dost ardently de- 
sire to be released from thy burden, and to be 
strengthened by the Holy Spirit ? And whether 
thou dost henceforth surrender thyself en- 
tirely to thy Lord, to obey Him, and to do all 
* Lutheran Communion Service, — Exhortation. 



THE GOOD BEGINNING. 3 1 

things by His gracious direction and guidance 
alone ? 

Neglect not, also, to submit thyself to the 
Church's examination, and publicly to confess thy 
sins, and to receive that full absolution which the 
minister there, on the authority of God's Word, 
which has given the power of the keys to the 
Church, proclaims to the truly penitent. 

And, then, fear not, in childlike humility and 
with uplifted heart appealing for divine aid, to 
take this last step which consummates thine en- 
trance into the family, and communion, and 
Church of God. And as thou dost partake, 
mayest thou verily " discern the Lord's body," 
(i Cor. xi. 29) ; and be refreshed with heavenly 
food, and commune with the King in His beauty ; 
and depart, feeling a new faith in Jesus, — a new 
rapture in the Spirit, — a new strength against sin 
and evil, — a new love to all brethren in the Gos- 
pel, and a new and blessed confidence that thy 
God shall be with thee forever and ever. 



PART II. 

Cfje Christian Ctace. 



&^ 



NOTHING is more beautiful and hopeful 
J than the sight of the young disciple, by 
Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy 



Communion, making a good beginning in the 
heavenward pilgrimage. But the Saviour, at this 
critical point in the journey, thus warns the 
aspirant for an immortal crown : " Not every one 
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into 
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will 
of my Father." After the leaves of promise, there- 
fore, must come holy fruit. Confession must be 
followed by constancy and perseverance in grace. 
It is alone by " patient continuance in well 
doing," that we can inherit u glory, and honor, 
and everlasting life." 

The Christian pilgrimage is a race, a continu- 
ous course, a perpetual progress ; and it is only 
by " pressing " with all our might " toward the 
mark," that we can ever reach the prize. Dan- 
gers are before us. Earthly enemies and powers of 
darkness resist our advance. There are, indeed, 

(32) 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 33 

sweet flowers and refreshing fountains and pure 
joys, such as the world knows not of, to renew the 
fainting pilgrim. Yet the way is thorny ; the 
cross is heavy ; the ascent is narrow and steep ; 
and with bleeding feet alone can we reach the 
blessed goal. The great question then is, whether 
the holy vow made in Confirmation will be kept ; 
and whether you will not stop with your good 
beginning, but, with unfaltering step, press for- 
ward in your race, obeying the Master's com- 
mand, " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
give thee a crown of life." (Rev. ii. 10.) 

All-important, then, is it, that you now "run 
with patience the race set before you, looking 
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith." 
That, therefore, you may not faint upon your 
holy pilgrimage, and not grow weary in well- 
doing, and that you may prove constant in your 
good confession to the joy and comfort of your 
fellow-disciples, and to the glory of your Lord, 
and thus at last receive the approving plaudit, 
" Well done, thou good and faithful servant," we 
address you the following earnest counsels. And 
may God make them the dew of His Spirit upon 
the tender bud of your faith, that it may break 
forth into the full-blown and fragrant flower of 
life-long piety. 



34 HEAVENWARD. 




SECTION L 

dangers* 

[]ANY are the dangers that beset the 
Heavenward course. Numerous are the 
rocks upon which the young voyager 
may make shipwreck of his faith. Let us first, 
then, direct his anxious concern to these foes to 
grace, so that he may be warned, and come safely 
through them all. Yielding weakly to their 
onset, he will soon lose his faith and his heav- 
enly title, but coming unhurt out of the fiery 
furnace, the discipline will only prove and con- 
firm his Christian character, and brighten his 
blessed hope. 

Firmness, patience, heroism are here needed. 
Self-knowledge is of the highest importance. 
Vigilance alike, is constantly required. The 
severer the conflict the more glorious will be the 
victory. Let, therefore, the youthful Christian 
be girded with the armor of light, and acquit 
himself as a true hero of the Cross, amid the 
manifold perils and enemies which he must 
needs encounter. 



THE CHRISTIAN RACK. 35 



CHAPTER I. 

DISCOURAGEMENTS. 

/JP|NE of the first things the youthful confes- 
^Js sor often notices after Confirmation is over, 
and after he has departed from the Lord's table, 
is a declension in the flame of his devotion. He 
does not feel that joy and ardor which at first 
animated him ; the same tender love does not 
move his heart, and the same entire self-consecra- 
tion no longer burns within him. Nor does the 
sense of the Spirit's presence seem as clear to 
him as before. He does not grow in grace and 
in close fellowship with his Lord as much as he 
had fondly hoped. And then the danger is, that 
he will become discouraged, that he will think 
he has been self-deceived, and that he will doubt 
whether he has really made a true beginning. 

But these experiences are common to any com- 
mencement in life, and older Christians are no 
strangers to them. We must not expect the 
freshness of the morning when the noonday's 
heat begins to descend upon us. If our ardor 
has somewhat declined, yet it may now, in its 



36 HEAVENWARD. 

greater evenness, firmness, and maturity, be far 
stronger than before. The child is more eager, 
but not so enduring at work, as the man. 

Job possessed great and unwavering piety, and 
yet even he at one time cried out almost in de- 
spair to Jehovah : " Wherefore hidest thou thy 
face, and holdest me for thine enemy?" How 
touching, too, the complaint of David, when he 
feels that the Holy One has departed far from 
him, and left him alone and disconsolate : " Cast 
me not away from thy presence, and take not 
thy Holy Spirit from me, restore unto me the 
joy of thy salvation, that the bones which thou 
hast broken may rejoice ! " And did not the 
blessed Saviour Himself on the cross, when the 
great darkness fell upon Him, cry out in the 
bitter sense of desertion by the Father : " My 
God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me?" 

And yet, in these cases, God was only trying 
the faith of His servants ; to make them perfect 
through suffering, and to show them that their 
whole hope and trust were in Him, and that 
they must abide under the shadow of the wings 
of the Most High for evermore, And soon as 
the tendrils of their faith were enabled again to 
lay hold upon Him, He took away the cloud of 
blackness, and lo ! the beauteous bow of His love 
and presence again filled the sky ! 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. '^ 

Let, then, the youthful pilgrim learn to expect 
lights and shadows, hills of joy and vales of 
gloom, upon his journey Heavenward. And 
though dark the night, never yield to discour- 
agement ; never abandon thy hope ; never sur- 
render thy faith ; never give up still seeking to 
walk with God ! But when coldness, and indif- 
ference, and apparent want of fruitfulness, lead 
thee to exclaim with the Psalmist : u Will the 
Lord cast off forever, and will He be favorable no 
more, is His mercy clean gone forever, doth His 
promise fail for evermore ? Hath God forgotten 
to be gracious, hath He in anger shut up His ten- 
der mercies?" then alike let the consoling re- 
flection of the Psalmist comfort thee : " I said this 
is my infirmity, but I will remember the years 
of the right hand of the Most High, surely I will 
remember thy wonders of old." (Ps. Ixxvii. n.) 

And thus, even as the Syro-Phenician woman 
entreated for her daughter, only redoubling our 
prayers the more He seems to repel us, at last 
His answer will show that all the while He 
meant to be gracious ; and He will restore unto 
us the light of His countenance, and the joy of 
our salvation, and cheered in spirit, and with a 
light and tuneful heart we can resume our on- 
ward journey. 



38 HEAVENWARD. 

Beside the toilsome way, 

Ivonely and dark, by fruits and flowers unblest, 
Which my worn feet tread sadly day by day, 

ponging in vain for rest, 

An angel softly walks, 

With pale, sweet face, and eyes cast meekly down, 
The while, from withered leaves and flowerless stalks. 

She weaves my fitting crown. 

And when my fainting heart 

Desponds and mourns at its adverse fate, 

Then quietly the angel's bright lips part, 
Whispering softly, " Wait." 

" Patience," she sweetly saith — 

" The Father's mercies never come too late ; 

Gird thee with patient strength and trusting faith, 
And firm endurance — Wait." 



CHAPTER II. 

TRUSTING TO CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 

A DANGER of precisely another kind to that 
just treated of is the one now indicated. 
That arose from too low an estimate of our prog- 
ress, this from too high a one. That was the 
danger of self-distrust, this the danger of self- 
sufficiency. Some new confessors are very easily 



THE CHRISTIAN RACK. 39 

satisfied. As the ancient Jews rested in a false 
security because they were the children of Abra- 
ham — members of the covenant and numbered 
with the chosen people, and therefore would 
not come to a baptism of repentance and purify- 
ing of the heart ; so is it with some now. They 
trust to their church membership. They think 
that since they have been baptized and confirmed, 
they have no more to do ; they think if they but 
partake at the table of the Lord, they will receive 
the blessing, whether they come with or without 
faith, with or without devout preparation, and 
with or without discerning the body of the Lord. 

Their religion is a form, their worship is a 
ceremony, their profession is a name. But can 
they think thus to deceive the All-seeing Eye ? 
Do they imagine that eternal life can be secured 
by such empty, hollow services as these? Do 
they not know that God is a " discerner of the 
thoughts and intents " of men? Do they expect 
that He will be satisfied with an offering of words, 
while the heart is far from Him ? Nay, rather is 
He not deeply offended by such frivolity? It 
is a dangerous affront to His holiness. Such 
conduct is a grievous tempting of infinite good- 
ness. In no quicker way than this is our con- 
science seared and the Spirit quenched. 

Be on thy guard, then, O young disciple, that 



40 HEAVENWARD. 

the sentence against the Church in Sardis be not 
thine : " I know thy works, that thou hast a 
name that thou livest, and art dead." (Rev. iii. i.) 
Alas ! how many professed followers of Jesus are 
in a most doubtful position to-day because of this 
very reason — they trust to their church member- 
ship I They have been reared in Christian fami- 
lies, and joined the Church as a matter of course, 
and their religion has become a mere habit. Its 
roots have not struck deep into the soil of their 
hearts. Their feelings are no more awake. They 
do not abide in the spirit. 

Against this outward piety and want of the 
inward righteousness of faith, as shown in the 
Church of Rome, Luther thus warns : " Before 
men it is, indeed, fine, clean, beautiful cloth, a 
costly treasure and virtue, that you are no adul- 
terer, no thief nor murderer, that you give alms, 
and are diligent in your office or calling ; this 
we may praise in the world, and regard it as 
satin, silk, and gold. But when you come be- 
fore God and His judgment, say, My best satin 
and gold are worse than tatters, therefore it is 
my highest joy and consolation that I be found not 
in my own righteousness, which is after the law, 
but in that which comes through faith in Christ." 

And it is against this, even in the days of 
Protestantism, that the godly John Arndt thus 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 4 1 

counsels : " That the Holy Gospel is subjected, 
in our age, to a great and shameful abuse, is 
fully proved by the ungodly and impenitent life 
of those who loudly boast of Christ and of His 
Word, while their unchristian life resembles that 
of persons who dwell in a land of heathens and 
not of Christians. I desire to show that we bear 
the name of Christians, not only because we 
ought to believe in Christ, but also because the 
name implies that we live in Christ, and that He 
lives in us. I further desire to show that true 
repentance proceeds from the inmost centre of 
the heart ; that the heart, mind, and affections 
must be changed ; that we must be conformed to 
Christ and His Holy Gospel, and that we must 
be renewed by the Word of God, and become new 
creatures." 

O how different would the Church of Jesus be 
if every confessor were thus also a follower of 
Christ ! If every one were really changed in 
heart, and penetrated by the influences and ruled 
by the power of the Holy Ghost ! How many 
wounds would be saved to Zion ! How much 
shame and dishonor to Christ would be put 
away ! How blessed would be the family and 
communion of the saints on earth, if so many in 
it were not strangers to the real power of the 
Gospel and to the new life of grace ! 



42 HEAVENWARD. 

Be not, then, overtaken by the snare of self- 
righteousness and self-sufficiency, and of trusting 
to a correct outward profession. " But let him 
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 
And ever look to thy heart, to thy walk, to thy 
inner life, and see to it that thou art also a mem- 
ber of the invisible Church, and that thy name is 
inscribed upon unfading tablets above. 



CHAPTER III. 

BACKSLIDING. 

PERHAPS there is no Christian congregation 
in which there is not a certain class of mem- 
bers who are properly described by the term 
backsliders. They have relapsed from the faith. 
They have fallen, too, even from the outward 
semblance of piety. They come no more to par- 
take of the Holy Supper. They are absent from 
the place where prayer is wont to be made. 
They are negligent about attendance upon 
church. And when they do hear the Word, 
they no longer take it like a burning coal to 
their inmost heart, to ponder and obey it. 



THE CHRISTIAN RACK. 43 

They have also grown remiss in their private 
devotions ; for he who will not worship God in 
public, need not try to draw near to Him in the 
closet. In fact, they have broken their holy 
baptismal vow. They have thrown down their 
cross. They have forsaken the Lord who bought 
them, and turned again to the " beggarly ele- 
ments" of sin and folly. Like Demas, they 
u have loved this present world." 

And what shall we say of such ? Alas ! theirs 
is a most dangerous situation ! Having once 
" tasted of the good Word of God," and having 
been partakers of the heavenly calling, and having 
entered into the very Holy of Holies of Christian- 
ity, their conduct " crucifies the Lord afresh, and 
puts Him to an open shame." They are grieving 
the Holy Ghost. They are committing the un- 
pardonable sin for which there is " neither for- 
giveness in this world nor in that to come." 
They are " tempting God." 

No excuse either is to be made for them. It is 
true they try to satisfy their consciences, but their 
excuses are but the inventions of their desires, — 
only a weak artifice of guilt, — which God will 
utterly expose in the last day. Under no possi- 
ble pretext can the person who has once given 
his heart to his Maker, afterwards take it back. 
But when we relapse, it is simply our careless 



44 HEAVENWARD. 

negligence that prompts us ; or we are enticed 
by the love of the world ; or we are resolved to 
immolate our souls at the idol of pleasure and 
sense. Nor can anyone deceive himself with the 
thought that he can just abandon his churchly 
duties, and thereby set himself free from all his 
holy obligations. 

For the covenant once entered into, and sealed 
by Baptism and Confirmation, and by the Body 
and Blood of the Lord, can never be annulled 
with the consent of the great I am. But it con- 
tinues to bind even while you are disowning it 
and trampling it under foot. And every moment 
that you remain a backslider, your sin grows 
deeper. 

If, then, Heavenward pilgrim, you have gone a 
few times to communion, and then ceased to walk 
with your fellow-confessors, there is but one thing 
for you to do. Any other course will certainly 
ruin your soul. That is, at once to return to the 
bosom of the Church, to renew your vows and to 
endeavor to walk again in the Spirit. 

" Remember Lot's wife." When she but 
looked behind to the goodly though wicked land 
she had left, the jealous Almighty made her a 
monument of warning to coming ages. " No man 
having put his hand to the plough, and looking 
back, is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke ix. 62.) 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 45 

What unutterable woe would pierce your 
spirit, as, in the realm of the lost, you beheld 
afar off the very same company w T ith which you 
had set out on your good beginning, holding their 
harps, and singing and triumphing upon the 
heavenly Mount of Zion ! 

O that you may be saved from this mournful, 
this melancholy, and this reproachful fate, viz., 
that of being a backslider from the faith and 
from the congregation of Israel ! Never, then, 
yield to the tempter when he suggests to you to 
return to the broad path of sin you have left be- 
hind. But at once reply, u Get thee behind me, 
Satan ; " and with a more trembling firmness than 
before, stand by the public confession of your 
Master in the Church. 



CHAPTER IV. 

BESETTING SINS. 

RESETTING sins are the weak points in the 
W pilgrim's armor, whereat the shafts of the 
evil One most often enter. They are the un- 
guarded gates by which the citadel is surprised 
and taken. It is by our conduct in regard to 



46 HEAVENWARD. 

them, too, that our piety is proved. It is not 
calm weather, but a storm that tests the capacity 
of a vessel. The ship that can only live in smooth 
seas, and under clear skies, is a perilous bark in 
which to try the treacherous ocean. And so, if 
the Christian disciple fails when his besetting 
sins assail him, then he can be fully assured that 
he is not safely on the way to heaven. He will 
never reach the goal. 

And yet, to master our besetting sins, is always 
a supreme trial. Here is the crisis-point of our 
conflict. Oh what grace then does not the 
Christian need, to give him the victory over these 
lusts of the flesh ! 

A golden rule is that of the Saviour : " Enter 
not into temptation." It is far easier to resist the 
beginnings of evil. Sin, at its very fountain-head, 
may be quenched like a mere spark, but suffered 
to advance only a little, soon it is a universal con- 
flagration, and no power can stay it. Resolutely 
then, check the first evil thought, the first guilty 
affection. Look to thy Lord transfixed upon the 
Cross, and remember how He was crucified to all 
earthly joys for thee ; and pray for divine, help- 
ing grace ? Remember that the same reproach- 
ful eye that He once turned upon fallen Peter, 
now looks mournfully upon thee, and for thy love 
to Him put back the temptation, and give no 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 47 

" occasion to the enemies of the cross to blas- 
pheme. " And may thy language be : 

Oh ! ever as the tempter spoke, and feeble nature's fears, 
Wrung drop by drop the scalding flow of unavailing tears, 
I wrestled down the evil thoughts, and strove in silent prayer 
To feel, oh Helper of the weak ! that Thou indeed wert there. 

If hitherto thou hast been vanquished, it has 
been because " thou hast not yet resisted unto 
blood, striving against sin." But if thou dost so 
resist, the promise is, that " the devil will flee 
from thee." If he is opposed by the word of God, 
(the weapon used by the Saviour when Satan 
had the boldness even to tempt Him), if he finds 
the conscience vigilant and armed against him ; 
he is a great coward, and immediately he flies, 
smitten with trembling and astonishment. 

And then " angels will come and minister unto 
thee." They will crown thee with the approval 
of thy Lord, whose wakeful eye has not been un- 
observant of thy hot contest. And then, thou wilt 
feel how sweeter far is the joy of " keeping under 
the body and bringing it into subjection," than 
of allowing thy soul to be a " castaway," in order 
that thou mayest pluck the " bitter apples of 
Sodom." " Wherefore, seeing we are compassed 
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us 
lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so 
easily beset us." (Heb. xii. i.) 



48 HEAVENWARD. 

Our besetting sins are as various as are human 
temperaments. With one it is pride ; with an- 
other temper ; with another selfishness ; with 
another carnal affections ; with another envy ; 
with another backsliding, and scattering dissen- 
sions in the church or among companions. But 
rightly managed and controlled, these besetting 
temptations can be made of great benefit to us. 
They are alarm-bells, which point out to us where 
our danger lies. They acquaint us with ourselves. 
They show us our weakness and our needs. 

And if then, surprised by their strength, we are 
led to betake ourselves closer to God — to exam- 
ine again the foundations of our piety — to polish 
and sharpen our gospel armor, and to have our 
conversation and citizenship more than ever in 
heaven ; our weaknesses will become to us the 
means to greater conquests in grace ; and issuing 
forth from their onset " more than conquerors 
through Him who hath loved us," our joyful song 
will be, " The name of the Lord is a strong 
tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe." 
(Prov. xviii, 10.) 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 49 

CHAPTER V. 

THE CHRISTIAN WARFARE. 

^THE journey Heavenward, thus beset by ene- 
^ mies and dangers, is, in truth, a Warfare. 
He who enters upon it must feel that he enlists 
as a soldier. His campaign is to reach the 
heights of salvation. His captain is Jesus. His 
banner is the Cross. His defensive armor is, " the 
Shield of Faith, with which he quenches the fiery 
darts of the wicked." His aggressive weapon is, 
" the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit," 
with which he scatters terror into the ranks of 
the enemy. His foes are, " the world, the flesh, 
and the devil." He has himself first to conquer, 
and the rebellious camp of his own unruly desires 
and tempers to set in order. He has to vanquish 
the world, with its soft arts and treacheries. And 
he has the devil, that old serpent, the Prince of 
Darkness, to cast down, as it is written, Ephes. 
vi. ii : "Put on the whole armor of God, that 
ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the 
devil." 

This warfare ceases not until the grave. Even 
the holiest men of old and of all times, have had 
their hot and trying conflicts. Moses and David 

4 



50 HEAVENWARD. 

were sometimes taken captive by the old Enemy, 
and were afterwards overwhelmed with shame and 
regret at their weakness. Paul speaks sorely of 
the sharp struggle that rages within him : " I de- 
light in the law of God after the inward man ; 
but I see another law in my members, warring 
against the law of my mind, and bringing me 
into captivity to the law of sin which is in my 
members." (Rom. vii. 22, 23.) 

It is idleness and ease that weaken the soldier 
and render him powerless in the time of battle. 
And just so is it with the Christian pilgrim ; that 
when he enters upon his warfare, he must expect 
to encounter hardships, and to make sacrifices, 
and not to pamper himself with indulgence and 
ease. St. Paul, therefore, thus counsels the 
Christian hosts as they are marching on to King 
Immanuel's land : " Dearly beloved, I beseech 
you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from 
fleshly lusts which war against the soul." And, 
again : " This charge I commit unto thee, that 
thou mightest war a good warfare." And it is 
also enjoined : " Thou therefore endure hardness 
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 

It is said of a certain eminent Christian, that 
" his history shows the right way to success. He 
sought it as a resolute soldier seeks a victory in 
a siege or battle, or as a man that runs a race for 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 5 1 

a great prize. God help every soldier of the cross 
on earth to pursue the same course." u For we 
wrestle not against flesh and blood ; but against 
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of 
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wick- 
edness in high places." (Ephes. vi. 12.) 

O, then, young Christian soldier, quit thee like 
a man in this holy warfare ! Thou dost not go a 
warring at thine own charges, but at the com- 
mand of King Immanuel, the Lord of Sabaoth 
and the God of battles. And though thy foes be 
strong, and thy dangers be many, and thy con- 
flicts be sharp and trying, yet He will be near to 
whisper to thy soul : " Fear thou not, for I am 
with thee ; be not dismayed, for I the Lord Thy 
God will hold thy right hand, saying, I will help 
thee." Yea ! when the foe comes against thee 
like a whirlwind, resist him with the defiance of 
that heroic warrior of the cross, Martin Luther, 
when he cried, " Though they kindle a fire whose 
flames reach up to heaven, yea ! though there be 
as many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the 
houses, yet, because I have been called, will I 
enter that city ;" — or when he sang : 

With might of ours can nought be done, 

Soon were our loss effected ; 
But for us fights the Valiant One, 

Whom God Himself elected. 



52 HEAVENWARD. 

Ask ye who is this ? 

Jesus Christ it is, - 

Of Sabaoth Lord ; 

And there's none other God ; 

He holds the field forever. 

Though devils all the world should fill, 

All watching to devour us, 

We tremble not, we fear no ill, 

They cannot overpower us. 

This world's prince may still 

Scowl fierce as he will, 

He can harm us none ; 

He's judged, the deed is done, 

One little word o'erthrows him. 

March, then, through this world as a stranger 
to its enticing joys, as one who has a hard race 
to run, — a sharp battle to fight, — a stubborn foe 
to subdue ; and keep thine eye fixed upon thy 
heavenly prize, and ever girding on thy gospel 
armor, put down weakness and temptation, and 
a victor shalt thou come out at last, and the 
crown of the faithful soldier shall be thine for- 
ever. 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 53 




SECTION II. 

|S there are foes and dangers confronting 
the young pilgrim, so there are also 
helps to assist him Heavenward. When 
the great Syrian host encompassed Elisha, his 
servant's heart quailed ; but the prophet's eye 
beheld the surrounding mountain full of horses 
and chariots of fire sent by heaven for his de- 
fence, and thereupon he addressed his trembling 
servant : " Fear not, for they that be with us are 
more than they that be with them." (2 Kings 
vi. 16.) And so it is with the Christian soldier, 
that his friends are more than his enemies, his 
weapons are stronger than theirs, and his helps 
are mightier than his dangers. All that he needs 
is for his eyes to be opened in order to see them. 
To these, for his comfort and defence, we now, 
therefore, direct him. 



54 HEAVENWARD. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE MEANS OF GRACE : THE WORD AND 
SACRAMENTS. 

JtfUMEROUS are the helps which God has 
X\ given us to awaken us from sleep and from 
relapse, and to quicken us in holiness ; but so far 
above all others stand the Word and Sacraments 
that they are called, by way of eminence, The 
Means of Grace. That is, as the rounds are the 
means by which we climb a ladder, or as the 
steps are the means by which we ascend a stair, 
such are the Word and Sacraments. They are 
the vessels through which we drink of the life- 
giving stream of grace. As the cup is not the 
water, but is needed that we may drink the 
water, so is it with the Word and Sacraments. 
They are not the grace itself, but without them, 
as cups or vessels to hold and convey the grace, 
we cannot have it. 

This makes it easy, also, to understand the 
doctrine of the Lord's Supper, which is not a 
mere symbol of grace, but a means of grace. 
The bread and the wine are not as the Roman- 
ists say, the literal Body and Blood of Christ, — 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 55 

are not the sacramental grace itself, — but they 
are the means, the vessels, through which that 
sacramental grace comes, and through which is 
received by us the true Body and Blood of the 
Lord. The means are not the thing itself, as 
Romanists say, neither are the Body and Blood 
separated from the means as some others would 
say ; but the true doctrine is that the sacramental 
grace is supernaturally connected with the means, 
which remain simply, and purely, and only, bread 
and wine, and yet through which our Lord's 
most precious Body and Blood are truly offered 
and received. Thus we do not violate the testi- 
mony of our senses, neither do we take from the 
Sacrament all that makes it unutterably dear, 
holy, mysterious, and strengthening to the soul. 

Consider, then, the Word. " Sanctify them 
through Thy Truth,— Thy Word is Truth," said 
the Saviour. That is, the great means of sanc- 
tification, of growth in the new life, and of walk 
in the Spirit, is the Word of God. It is the 
sole spring of regeneration. " From a child," 
said Paul to his young friend, Timothy, " thou 
hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able 
to make thee wise unto salvation." " Search 
the Scriptures" is the great law for him who 
seeks after eternal life. 

It is through God's Word that the Holy Ghost 



56 HEAVENWARD. 

awakens us when dead in trespasses and sins ; 
enlightens our understanding ; inflames our love ; 
reproves our shortcomings ; and feeds, nourishes, 
and sustains the new life. " Thou shalt be nour- 
ished up in the words of faith and of good doc- 
trine" said the holy apostle. 

O that Christians would prize more the Word, 
and that they would seek more to be rooted and 
grounded in the pure doctrine. " Other founda- 
tion than this can no man lay." Having itch- 
ing ears, turning to fables, and seeking after this 
and that new thing, are the cause that the piety 
of many is mere hay, wood, stubble, to be de- 
voured by the fiery test ; or chaff, to be sw r ept 
away by the first storm of temptation ; or grass, 
which springeth up on the rock, but having no 
root in itself, withers away. 

" The great need of modern Christianity is the 
meditative spirit." Every one talks of works, of 
activity, of Christian enterprise, of successful arts 
in popularizing the Church, and conforming it 
to worldly taste in order to draw the crowd ; but 
of deep, calm piety, — unseen communion with 
God, — devout feeding upon the Word, — growing 
up to Christlike manhood by meditation upon 
the profound and sublime mysteries of faith, 
there is quite too little. The leaves are green, 
while the w r orm is feeding upon the heart. 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 57 

Be not, then, young pilgrim, like these, but 
" as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of 
the Word, that ye may grow thereby." And 
thus shall your house be built upon a rock, and 
your anchor struck far down into the deeps of 
eternal truth, and the very waves of hell shall 
not prevail against you. 

Along with the Word, and borne by it, are the 
Holy Sacraments. As the other is a spoken 
Word, so these are a visible Word. That ad- 
dresses itself to the ear, these to the sense of 
sight and touch. In the Word we hear, but in 
the Holy Sacraments we see and " taste that the 
Lord is gracious." (1 Peter ii. 2.) 

As Holy Baptism is the sacrament of regen- 
eratio7i, so the Holy Communion is the sacra- 
ment to which the believer goes for renewal. 
The former admits us into, the latter sustains us 
upon, the Christian pilgrimage. 

Holy Baptism, (and its attendant Confirma- 
tion,) accordingly is administered but once ; but 
the Holy Communion is celebrated over and over 
again, as often as the Church thinks it judicious 
for our renewal, and comfort, and upbuilding in 
grace. The sincere seeker for life will, there- 
fore, most faithfully improve this golden means. 
He will thank God for every opportunity to feed 
anew upon its precious nourishment for his inner 



58 HEAVENWARD. 

life. Every time that he partakes of the Holy 
Communion he will feel strengthened in faith, 
quickened in zeal, renewed in love and hope. 
But the neglect of it, or the careless celebration 
thereof, will weaken and soon destroy his relig- 
ious life. " For this cause " (improper dealing 
with the Communion), said St. Paul to the Chris- 
tians of Corinth, " many are weak and sickly 
among you and many sleep." (1 Cor. xi. 30.) 

It is often a matter of painful surprise to pas- 
tors, how professors of Christ can show the indif- 
ference they do to these great Means of Grace — 
the Word and the Holy Communion. They are 
careless in their attendance upon church, and 
every little obstacle keeps them at home, show- 
ing how little they live upon the Word as their 
daily food. More than half the seasons of Holy 
Communion, though not as frequent as desirable, 
they miss, showing how little they prize this 
feast of renewal. 

No wonder, then, that their piety is a feeble 
and sickly plant. Let it, then, beloved disciple 
of Jesus, above all things else, be the chief help 
upon which you rely ; the chief ladder by which 
you ascend the heights of spiritual life, to dili- 
gently lay hold upon THE Means of Grace 
— the Word and Sacraments. By their 
regular and faithful use will you be devel- 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 59 

oped in that sound, humble, quiet, enduring, 
and effective piety, which, most of all, God 
loves. 



m 



CHAPTER II. 

PRAYER. 

RAYER is the eye of faith turned upward to 
IF* g aze on the unseen. It is the pause of the 
soul from worldly pursuits to commune with its 
God. It is a return of the spirit, wearied by earth- 
ly anxiety and care, to rest upon the bosom of its 
Father and Maker, and to be renewed again for 
the battles and toils of time. Prayer is the life- 
breath of the Christian. By its aid he feeds upon 
heavenly manna, and is nourished by the spiritual 
meat and drink of angels. The place of prayer 
is one of the holiest, safest, and most blessed spots 
upon earth. While bowed before the mercy-seat, 
no danger can harm us. The seasons that we 
spend in prayer are those in which we dwell near 
to heaven, and which will be the least regretted 
and the most happily remembered in a dying 
hour. 

Prayer is a glorious privilege. It is surpassing 
condescension that the eternal Jehovah should be 



60 HEAVENWARD. 

a Hearer and Answerer of prayer. That to the 
pious heart every spot of earth becomes a temple, 
in which we may find God and talk with Him, 
and receive an impartation of His blessing. 
Prayer is one of the most precious helps of the 
Christian. It is the hand that takes hold upon 
the Hand that moves the world. 

The Devil trembles when he sees 
The weakest saint upon his knees. 

We are never stronger than when we rise from 
prayer ; the tempter is never farther from us ; 
and our souls never feel more as if they breathed 
the morning air of heaven, and were mightily 
renewed for running well the Christian race. 

Prayer is a precious means of piety. Continu- 
ing " instant in prayer," begets the Christian 
temper. Ever communing with Christ, an image 
of His pure Spirit is formed within us. From 
prayer, flow meekness, faith, self-consecration, 
and courage to be crucified in the work of the 
Lord. Prayer baptizes the Christian with that 
dew of heaven which fertilizes his whole nature 
with the breath of God. No one, then, who daily 
and fervently prays will ever be seen relapsing 
from grace. But his course in piety will be on- 
ward and upward. 

The holiest men have ever been the most dili- 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 6 1 

gent in prayer. The patriarch Jacob wrestled in 
prayer with the Holy One at Penuel until the 
break of day, saying, " I will not let thee go un- 
less thou bless me. And he blessed him there" 
Moses prayed so fervently that he even asked 
God to blot his name out of His book, unless he 
would answer, and at last the Almighty yielded, 
and granted what He had before refused. The 
Psalms of David are but the breathings of his 
prayers. And so far and rapt was the flight of 
his Faith in prayer, that her wing even carried 
him over unborn ages, until he beheld the glori- 
ous vision of the future Messiah of the w 7 orld. 

But above all, what a life of prayer was that of 
Christ ! Tried by the contradiction of sinners, 
He begins His career by spending a whole night 
in prayer. His mightiest miracle at the grave of 
Lararus was not performed until He had turned 
His heart upward in prayer, and asked the Holy 
Father to glorify Him before men. It was, too, 
in the stillness of Gethsemane, just before His 
sharp agony on the cross, that He prayed so ear- 
nestly that His sweat, falling like great drops of 
blood, reddened and hallowed the ground. And 
His last expiring cry, as his soul in death took 
that awful leap into eternity, was the prayer : 
" Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." 

And how was the beloved Luther distinguished 



62 HEAVENWARD. 

as a man of prayer ! We are astonished that amid 
his press of duties he could daily find several 
hours for the holy calm of prayer. What a mov- 
ing prayer was that one on record which nerved 
him for his heroic but dangerous confession at 
Worms ! It was wonderful, indeed, how this holy 
man talked and pleaded with God, even as one 
would speak with a friend. 

And how, then, can the young disciple expect 
to be preserved in the midst of so many dangers, 
without daily and fervent resort to the throne of 
grace? u Watch and pray," was the Master's 
great command. Prayer is the sentinel which 
guards on the watch-towers of the Christian, and 
keeps him awakened and vigilant against the ap- 
proach of every disguised artifice of the old 
Enemy. 

It is the Spirit that teaches us how to pray 
aright. " Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our 
infirmities ; for we know not what we should pray 
for as we ought ; but the Spirit itself maketh 
intercession for us with groanings which cannot 
be uttered." It is the one who is baptized with 
the Holy Ghost, and in whom the Spirit abides, 
who can ask for those things which are best for 
him, and who can so make intercession for them 
that God cannot refuse. 

But we must also pray like the Saviour, " Not 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 63 

my will but Thine, O God, be done." " No good 
thing will the Lord withhold from them that walk 
uprightly. " But He will withhold that which 
He knows not to be for our good, even if we pray 
ever so earnestly for it. He often, too, refuses us 
for the present, that He may but answer our 
prayers in a different, a larger, and a better way 
than in the precise form and manner we had 
wished. And we must not be rash, then, to doubt 
His goodness, or to accuse His faithfulness to His 
holy promises. 

Let, then, the pilgrim often resort to the mercy- 
seat if he would have grace to press forward upon 
the way of life. There is no more beautiful and 
hopeful scene for the young confessor than when 
his protecting angel hastens to the presence of 
God with the joyful tidings, " Behold he prayeth." 
" They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
strength ; they shall mount up with wings as 
eagles; they shall run, and not faint." Like 
David, then, morning, evening, and at noon, — 
yea ! in the silent night watches, and in the busy 
and crowded day, — ever let thy spirit ascend to 
thy Maker in prayer, and He will draw near to 
bless thee and to u give His angels charge over 
thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." Frequent 
closet prayer, and regular public worship in the 
assembly of God's people, will be a mighty help to 



64 HEAVENWARD. 

thee in thy journey heavenward, and never neg- 
lecting, but conscientiously and fervently attend- 
ing to this holy and delightful duty, thy love and 
zeal will know no relapse. 

When is the time for prayer ? 

With the first beams that light the morning sky, 
Ere for the toils of day thou dost prepare, 

Lift up thy thoughts on high : 
Commend thy footsteps to His watchful care : 
Morn is the time for prayer. 

And when the stars come forth — 

When to the trusting heart sweet hopes are given, 
And the deep stillness of the hour gives birth 

To pure, bright dreams of heaven ; 
Kneel to thy God — ask strength life's ills to bear ; 
Night is the time for prayer. 

When is the time for prayer? 

In every hour while life is spared to thee ; 
In crowds or solitude, in joy or care, 

Thy thoughts should heavenward flee, 
At home, at noon and eve, with loved ones there, 
Bend thou the knee in prayer. 



CHAPTER III. 

DEVOTION TO THK CHURCH. 

TTTHE Holy Christian and Apostolic Church — 
^ the organized community of them that be- 
lieve — is the Body of Christ. That is, it is 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 65 

that visible form through which He lives and 
moves upon the earth, and unites the believers to 
Himself as members thereof, and sustains them 
by the impartation of His grace. Just as the 
spirit of man must have a body in which to work 
and manifest itself, so Christianity can alone 
flourish in the Church. There can be no true, 
healthy piety without churchliness. For the 
flower of religion, in its loveliest grace, blooms 
alone under the shadow of the altars of Zion, 
whence issue forth, abundantly watering its roots, 
those crystal fountains of life, the pure Gospel 
and Holy Sacraments. The Church is the very 
kingdom of grace, in which all the appointed 
means and instrumentalities and helps upon the 
Heavenward path, abound in plentiful and 
glorious profusion. 

A deep devotion, then, to the visible Church, 
a due veneration for those outward marks and 
rites and symbols by which she is shadowed 
forth in earthly form, and a lively and solemn 
appreciation of the importance of churchly obli- 
gations and duties, are at once the characteristics 
and the safeguards of true piety. The loss of the 
form will soon be followed by the destruction of 
the spirit. When churchliness is once disdained, 
Christianity itself will soon be rejected. When 
the visible Church is once destroyed, men will 
5 



66 HEAVENWARD. 

look in vain for the invisible. It is impossible to 
kill the Body of Christ without also wounding 
Him. Those who claim to be advocates of Chris- 
tianity, and yet oppose the Church, are, even 
though they may not so mean it, the most subtle 
and dangerous of all the enemies of the kingdom 
of truth. 

The true believer will, then, see in the Church 
the Lord's mystical body ; and in her communion 
he will find hallowed intercourse with his 
Saviour ; and as her holy ordinances, and sea- 
sons, and assemblies, fill him with devout rap- 
ture, he will exclaim with the Psalmist : " How 
amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts ! 
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts 
of the Lord ! " The welfare of Zion will be in- 
expressibly dear to him, her wounds will cause 
his heart to bleed, and her prosperity and her joy 
will make his soul leap with gladness. 

For her my tears shall fall ; 

For her my prayers ascend ; 
To her my prayers and toils be given, 

Till toils and cares shall end. 

Beyond my highest joy, 

I prize her heavenly ways, 
Her sweet communion, solemn vows, 

Her hymns of love and praise. 

As " Christ loved the Church and gave Him- 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 67 

self for it ; " and as the early believers brought 
their all and laid it at the apostles' feet, so will 
the interests of the Church be precious to the 
loving disciple as the apple of his eye. His medi- 
tations, his prayers, and his devisings, will be how 
he can advance her progress, how he can make 
strong her bulwarks, beautify her palaces and en- 
large^ her borders. No tribute will be too costly 
to express his affections, no labor will be too hard 
for his devotion, no sacrifice will exhaust his love. 
Such attachment as this to the Church it is 
which discloses the temper that u has forsaken 
all and followed Him. 1 ' And it is the faithful 
band who are known by this pure and single de- 
votion, who stand by the Church in her need 
and want and trial, as well as in her palmy and 
peaceful days, who are found at their places in 
all times and seasons, who bare their own bosoms 
to every rude onset and cruel reverse, rather than 
that the Bride of Christ should suffer, who up- 
hold the hands and cheer the hearts of her min- 
istering servants, it is these who are the pillars 
of the Church on earth ; it is these by whom the 
kingdom of God moves forward to the glorious 
day of its universal empire ; and it is these whose 
names in the shining foundations of the New 
Jerusalem above shall be written beneath those 
of the twelve apostles of the L,amb. 



68 HEAVENWARD. 

One of the most dangerous defects of modern 
Christianity has been the decline of reverence for 
the visible Church, an undervaluing of the ordi- 
nances thereof as helps to piety, an effort to break 
that union of Spirit and Nature, of Word and 
Sacrament, of Grace and Means, which is the 
very essence of Christianity ; and it is one of the 
most hopeful signs of the times that a great re- 
vival of churchly piety is making steady progress 
throughout the Christian world. 

Your devotion to the Church of Christ must 
be shown to her in that department with which in 
the Providence of God you are connected. This 
will not prevent you from having a large and 
gentle charity toward the sincere children of God 
in other ecclesiastical households. But a charity 
so broad as to lead you to have no distinctive 
preference for your mother Church, in which 
you were baptized, and in which your parents 
lived and died, is like the son who does not 
honor and prefer his own parents, or like the 
citizen who has no patriotic preference for his 
own country ; and is therefore a mistaken charity, 
and most deleterious to usefulness in the Church. 
For it is when thoroughly acquainted with the 
doctrines of your own Church, and with those 
aspects in which it excelleth in glory, that you 
will most ardently love and cherish and labor for 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 69 

it ; and that your Devotion to the Church of Christ 
will attain the greatest height and depth. Let 
every believer, then, be intelligently grounded in 
the distinctive faith for which his own Church 
witnesses and contends. 

A distinguished feature of our Church is its 
love for the pure faith of God's Word. No 
other Church so much prizes the very letter of 
the Truth ; and recognizes so greatly the all- 
importance of laying securely the foundation for 
the superstructure of piety. It cherishes unity 
indeed, and sets large store upon practical relig- 
ious activity ; but it loves and prizes and esteems 
the truth more. It holds that true conversion, 
and true piety, and true church progress, pre- 
eminently depend upon true doctrine. It would 
not make the stem to be more essential than the 
root, or place the stream above its source. It 
therefore relies not so much upon human skill 
and upon adept measures, as it does upon the 
great, divine, life-generating cause, viz., the 
Word of God in its simple, pure, natural mean- 
ing. With it the wisdom of man is foolishness, 
but " the Gospel is the power of God unto salva- 
tion," and the humbler and the more insignifi- 
cant the means, the greater is the glory of Him 
who worketh as He will. 

With the Lutheran Church, therefore, the 



70 HEAVENWARD. 

fundamental point is to have a correct confes- 
sion of faith, to accept the Word in child-like 
humility as it is written ; not pruning it of its 
most glorious mysteries in order to fit it to the 
narrow walls of our reason ; but the greater the 
mystery, the greater our adoring joy at the un- 
searchable riches and the limitless pasture-fields 
of grace. Where the pure Word is esteemed so 
precious a treasure, and where the first duty is 
thus to meditate deeply upon the Scriptures, so 
as to preach and feed upon their saving substance, 
the rites, ceremonies, and peculiar type of out- 
ward form are naturally viewed as secondary, 
and a matter of Christian liberty. Our Church, 
therefore, while deeming subscription to the 
Augsburg Confession of Faith, the great creed 
of regenerated Christendom, as essential, and 
while recognizing the great value of uniformity 
in modes of worship, yet tolerates, as matters of 
human expediency, various formes of church gov- 
ernment, and diversified orders of service. 

Again : Our Church is eminent for a rich 

DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SACRAMENTS. While 

separating them from all Romish and carnal er- 
rors, as that of the ex opere operato doctrine, viz., 
that the Sacraments are efficacious by their mere 
outward celebration without faith — or that of 
Transubstantiation, Consubstantiation, or any 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 7 1 

similar heresy ; we do hold that the Sacraments 
are not mere empty signs, but that they are 
means of grace. That the water, the bread, and 
the wine are the earthen vessels through which 
the heavenly treasure is borne, even as a pitcher 
holds and conveys water without being that 
water, or as a printed letter holds the precious 
commodity of truth, without being itself con- 
founded with that truth. 

Thus we avoid that idolatry which would 
make the earthy to be heavenly, but we do not 
lose our hold on the glorious mystery of the 
Sacraments as the means of conveying precious 
and heavenly grace, viz., in Baptism, the gift of 
the Holy Ghost, and in the Holy Communion, 
the gift of the Body and Blood of the Lord. For 
if we can believe that the chainless eternal Spirit 
is given through a printed letter, or through ar- 
ticulated sound striking upon the ear, or that the 
Holy Ghost is given through simple water, be- 
cause God's Word declares it, assuredly it is no 
harder to believe, upon the very same authority, 
that Christ may be given to dwell in us, and 
strengthen us, through simple bread and wine. 

Our Church, again, sanctioned by the universal 
belief and practice of the Apostolic Church, holds 
firmly to ineant baptism, and believing that the 
coming of Christ has not narrowed but widened 



72 HEAVENWARD. 

the stream of grace, cannot think that, while 
Jewish children were members of the covenant 
by circumcision, the birth of the Messiah as a 
babe would cast children out of the covenant in 
which they were before. Consequently, she ever 
prizes the words of Christ, " Suffer the little chil- 
dren to come unto me, and forbid them not, for 
of such is the kingdom of God ;" and she enjoins 
all pious parents to be faithful in this great duty, 
and not to despise the baptismal grace offered 
their children, but to bring them early and con- 
secrate them to God at the altar of Holy Baptism. 
Our Church, again, advocates catechetical 
instruction of the young, as the best means of 
leading to a public confession of Christ in the 
Church. This practice, which is of the highest 
antiquity, — the early Church forming the young 
into three graded classes of catechumens, and pre- 
paring them by a course of instruction of from two 
to three years, — the Lutheran Church resumed 
with great zeal at the era of the Reformation, and 
has ever continued since. In experience, it en- 
dures the test far better than any modern plan. 
Whereas, in churches resorting to hasty admis- 
sion, founded upon sudden excitement, relapse is 
the rule and perseverance the exception, with us 
it is just the reverse. We receive a smaller num- 
ber, but we retain the more in the end. Neither 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. J$ 

is the field of Christianity thereby strewn with 
the melancholy wrecks of souls, who began, un- 
fitted by good, sound doctrine, the Christian race, 
but who, by a more judicious preparation of care- 
ful training, might have been eternally saved. 

The distinction sometimes noted between Ro- 
man Catholic and Protestant countries, that in 
the latter fewer men are found in the Church, is 
chiefly owing to this cause — the rejection of that 
catechetical training of youth which wins them to 
Christ before their habits and tempers are formed 
and hardened by intercourse with society and the 
temptations of the world. That this distinction 
is owing to catechisation is seen likewise by the 
much larger proportion of men found in the Ger- 
man, Swedish, and Norwegian (where this system 
so largely prevails), than in the English, churches. 

Our Church thus prefers careful instruction 
and a quiet profession, with permanent results 
and deeds that speak trumpet-toned, to a loud 
profession, followed by a life barren of Christian 
works, like the fig-tree denounced by our Saviour 
for blooming with verdant leaves while it bore 
no fruit. And, by a glorious and unprecedented 
progress, has God blessed these efforts in our 
Church, rich in faith and sacrifice, but marked by 
a deep and orderly piety, which was proof against 
all the arts of modern sensationalism, and never 



74 HEAVENWARD. 

compromised the pure name and dignity of the 
cause of Christ to attract the gaze of the world. 

Congregational worship is also a highly 
prized feature of the Lutheran Church. To us it 
seems a great inconsistency that some churches 
should acknowledge the value of congregatibjial 
singing, but then oppose this same congregational 
feature of religious service when extended to the 
prayers and to the whole worship of God by His 
people. We believe that true worship is only such 
where, like in the temple service at Jerusalem, or 
like in the glimpses of heavenly worship given 
us in the Apocalypse, it is participated in by all. 
Hence the value of a Common Service as well as 
of a Common Hymnal. 

Consequently, our worship is responsive and 
congregational. In the prayers, in the singing, 
in the confession, in the opening and in the con- 
clusion, all share a part ; and a rich and holy 
fervor is thus given to the religious emotions, 
which they would lose if repressed and stifled 
within the bosom. Our Church, however, while 
clinging most ardently to this principle of the 
congregation unitedly engaging in public wor- 
ship, shrinks most guardedly from any the least 
abuse of it, disclosing a tendency toward that 
both impious and frivolous extreme called Ritual- 
ism, Our service is but founded upon nature, to 



THE CHRISTIAN RACK. 75 

help and to call it forth. The voice assists the 
heart, and it is when both soul and body praise 
the Lord, and all within us join to magnify His 
name, that the wave of Christian enthusiasm 
reaches the highest possible point upon earth ; 
yea ! rolls up to the very throne of God. 

Thus, too, is there a rich, hearty fervor in 
Lutheran piety ; a childlike joyousness ; a liberty 
in the Lord temperately to use all His gifts ; a 
love of Christian Art employed as a minister to 
aid religion ; a belief in the unconditioned uni- 
versality of the offer of saving grace, and an 
adoring trust in justification through faith alone ; 
that causes us to thank God that the lines have 
fallen to us within her blest communion. Let no 
one, then, falter in his devotion to the Church 
which Providence has made his spiritual mother. 

Let her children in the faith remember her 
great history, for by her the Reformation was 
begun and fought to its glorious issue, and the 
pure faith rescued from what had almost proved 
its grave. And as she is the Mother Church of 
the Reformation, so is she far greater and stronger 
than any of her most flourishing daughters. She 
is in truth the Church of " tongues," she alone 
praises God in every language of civilization, she 
has more kings and princes and nations, and is 
larger numerically than all other evangelical 



J 6 HEAVENWARD. 

churches together. And in her hands most prob- 
ably is the sceptre of the destinies of Christen- 
dom, — she is the Church of the future. 

We close this interesting theme with the ap- 
pended testimonies to our Church from divines 
belonging to other Protestant communions. 

The Rev. Mr. Goodwin (Congregationalist), 
writes thus, in the Christian Union, of the 
" Service of Song," as it impressed him in the 
Lutheran churches in Europe : " The influence of 
the great reformer, Luther, is felt as an almost 
palpable presence in all the churches called by 
his name. His spirit breathes in all the hymns 
that are sung, many of which were composed by 
him ; and his theology animates the whole wor- 
ship, not less than the preaching and confession 
of the Lutheran Church. In entering one of 
these churches, after habitual attendance upon 
those of Calvinistic faith and worship, one feels 
that he has come into a milder and more genial 
atmosphere, where the icy points that stand out 
clear and sharp in the Alpine air of Calvinism 
have become softened and melted down by the 
heat and glow proceeding from the heart of the 
great reformer ; and the glacial system of the- 
ology has been converted into fertilizing streams 
that flow together under the harmonizing and 
rhythmic power of song." 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. J 7 

And that eminent Reformed divine, Rev. Philip 
Schaff, D.D., also says : " The Lutheran piety has 
' its peculiar charm, the charm of Mary, who sat 
at Jesus' feet and heard His word. ... It has a 
rich, inward life. It excels in honesty, kindness, 
affection, cheerfulness, and that ' Gemuthlichkeit y 
for which other nations have not even a name. 
The Lutheran Church meditated over the deepest 
mysteries of Divine grace, and brought to light 
many treasures of knowledge from the mines of 
revelation. She can point to an unbroken suc- 
cession of learned divines, who devoted their 
whole life to the investigation of saving truth. 
She numbers her* mystics who bathed in the 
ocean of infinite love. She has sung the most 
fervent hymns to the Saviour, and holds sweet, 
childlike intercourse with the heavenly Father." 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE HOLY FESTIVALS. 

^TTHE principle of observing certain days and 
^ seasons as religious festivals rests upon an 
analogy to the appointments of Jehovah in the 
Old Testament. He specified several periods to 



78 HEAVENWARD. 

be annually set apart as seasons to be devoted 
entirely to religion. Such were : the Feasts of 
Passover, of Pentecost, of Tabernacles, and the 
Great Sabbath of Atonement. These were called 
"holy convocations" unto the Lord, in which 
all work was to cease ; and when, at the sound- 
ing of the silver trumpets, the congregation of 
Israel assembled for devotion. They were prin- 
cipally based upon great historic events in the 
wondrous dealings of Jehovah with His people, 
and upon important religious truths, the calling 
of which to mind was meant to awaken the 
slumbering flame of piety. 

So illustrious, then, is the original, of which 
our Christian Festivals are a type. If God had 
so distinguished His goodness to the Jews that 
they must have annual commemorations of these 
gracious acts, much more did the early Christians 
feel called upon to set apart festive seasons to 
celebrate and keep alive in grateful memory 
those marvelous displays of grace, which the 
day of light and of the revelation of the Messiah 
had brought to their eyes. 

The "Three High Festivals" of Chris- 
tianity are Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. 
Each of these is properly a cycle, including at- 
tendant seasons. Thus, in connection with 
Christmas, are Advent and Epiphany ; with 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 79 

Easter are Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and, 
pre-eminently, Good Friday ; and Whitsuntide 
is preceded by Ascension Day and followed by 
Trinity Sunday. 

Of these three, Easter and Whitsuntide are 
the most ancient Festivals. These, indeed, from 
the early references to them, were evidently cele- 
brated from the very beginning. The death and 
resurrection of Christ naturally exerted so pro- 
found and thrilling an impression upon the early 
disciples that they could not forget that Great 
Week upon its return, and as Holy Thursday 
was touchingly remembered by celebrating the 
Holy Communion which the Master had insti- 
tuted upon the night of His betrayal, it was im- 
possible that the day of His crucifixion, Good 
Friday, and the wondrous morning when He 
triumphed over the tomb, Easter, could be for- 
gotten. So also with his final Ascension and 
the outpouring of the Holy Ghost at the Feast 
of Pentecost, by which the believers were born 
again and strengthened and comforted for their 
perils and trials, and the youthful Church started 
upon its great future career. 

Thus, too, Christmas, which was not instituted 
until as late as the fourth century, and which 
was unanimously fixed by the ancient Church 
upon the 25th of December (and therefore evi- 



80 HEAVENWARD. 

dently not without some high legendary author- 
ity conclusive to the fathers), soon rose to such 
eminence, and the churches were so lavishly 
decorated and so thronged with worshippers, 
that St. Chrysostom calls it the u Mother of all 
the Festivals," for on it was shed the mystic 
spell of that holiest night of time, when the 
Word became incarnate, and an angelic chorus 
floating down upon the plains of Bethlehem, an- 
nounced that the long-promised Messiah was 
born in the manger, and that " God had visited 
His people." 

The Holy Festivals, those " wreathed pillars 
of the Christian year," are the true revival sea- 
sons of the Church. Nothing has a greater ten- 
dency to stimulate devotion than the setting 
apart of special seasons, in which worldly duties 
are to be largely forgotten, and the soul with- 
drawn to the contemplation of religion, to holy 
meditations, and to the interests of the kingdom 
of God. To meet this pious inclination have the 
Festivals been appointed, and they are superior 
to all modern special seasons in many respects, 
but chiefly in these, that they are based upon, 
and call to mind in a lively manner, the greatest, 
most thrilling and instructive facts in the history 
and work of Christ, and also, that celebrating 
them, we keep up that bond of unity with the 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 8 1 

believers of all time and the Church in all ages, 
which is so beautiful and holy. 

How indescribably hallowed, thus, are these 
holy seasons to the fervent Christian heart, as, 
with the Church throughout the world, and with 
the fellowship of the believers in all past time 
looking down upon him, he goes upon the same 
day and hour of the year to the cradle at Bethle- 
hem to adore the infant Lord ; or stands with 
weeping love at the foot of the Holy Cross ; or, 
with unutterable joy, gazes upon the riven sep- 
ulchre on Easter's blessed morn. 

Thus in succession the Church Year leads us 
along the path of the appearing, the suffering, 
and the triumphing Redeemer, that we may hail 
Him in His several offices as Prophet, Priest, and 
King. And then comes the longer Trinity sea- 
son, in which we are reminded of the fruits of 
the Christian life, which all these moving truths 
should now bring forth in us. 

The pious and devout celebration of these 
Holy Festivals the youthful pilgrim will find 
a most precious help on his way heaven- 
ward ! By them will his love to Jesus be quick- 
ened, his unworthiness be reproved, his perhaps 
broken vows, made on Palm Sunday or Whitsun- 
tide, be remembered, and his lukewarm piety be 
revived to new ardor and strength. The Holy 
6 



82 HEAVENWARD. 

Festivals are the oases, — bright spots of green and 
flowers where living fountains break forth, — -in 
the pilgrimage of the Christian Race. There, 
then, let every young pilgrim refresh his fainting 
zeal and his relaxing vigor, and pressing forward 
again with renewed energy, " thank God and 
take courage." 



CHAPTER V. 

WALKING IN THE STEPS OE THE FATHERS : THE 
PRIMITIVE OR APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 

TJTHE remark of the Grecian philosopher, Plato, 
^ that the " ancients being nearer to the gods 
than the moderns, therefore were better ac- 
quainted with the divine will," applies with pe- 
culiar aptness to the early times of Christianity. 
The era of Christ's personal tabernacling upon 
the earth is the noonday of truth. Then the 
moral Sun shone in its fullest splendor, and the 
Day of Grace was at its meridian brightness. 
All ages before looked forward to the Sun of 
Truth, but all ages since must look backward to 
that glorious Orb ; for Christ is the centre of all 
history, whom the ages cannot progress away 



THE CHRISTIAN RACK. 83 

from, but about whom they must eternally re- 
volve. 

Consequently, the Primitive or Apostolic 
Church — u e., the Church during the first cen- 
tury and earliest years succeeding to Christ — 
must be the model of the Church in all coming 
time. This was the ideal epoch of Christianity. 
Then the rays of the setting Sun of Truth yet 
lingered on the horizon ; the apostles, who were 
miraculously endowed and had been personally 
taught by Christ, yet lived, or were well remem- 
bered by many pious fathers who had walked 
with them, and many traditions of the sayings of 
Christ, and of the decisions of the apostles, were 
preserved. " This period," therefore, " contains 
that basis of the whole development of the 
Church, to which whatever was of later origin 
attached itself as a mere accident of it,"* and its 
study the Christian will find one of his most use- 
ful helps. 

Never can age dim the lustre of this era. But 
the older grows the Past of Christianity, the 
brighter shine the examples of the pious apos- 
tolic fathers, and the greener become the leaves 
of their eternal youth. The Christian's eye 
ought often, then, to turn backward to study the 
Church in her primitive glory. Let us not al- 
* Guericke's Manual of the Ancient Church. 



84 HEAVENWARD. 

ways, like the foolish Athenians whom Paul re- 
proved, " spend our time in nothing else but 
either to tell or to hear some new thing, " but 
with reverence sit at the feet of the august 
Past, and learn deep and cautious wisdom for 
the future. 

Writes Ruskin : " They are the weakest minded 
and hardest hearted who most love variety and 
change. The generations, as they pass, do not 
carve their work in snow that will melt, but each 
and all are rolling a great, white, gathering snow- 
ball — higher and higher, larger and larger — along 
the Alps of human power." And says President 
Woodrow Wilson : " The old things of art and 
taste and thought and religion are the permanent 
things. We know that they are, because they 
have lasted long enough to grow old.-' 

The apostle reminds us that we are those " on 
whom the ends of the world are come." (i Cor. 
x. ii.) And we who thus live "in the fore- 
most files of time," sit at the feet of the ages, 
and should drink in the lore of their wisdom. 

The laity, and some clergy even, of modern 
times, should be far better acquainted with the 
primitive Church. Too little is known of it, 
and this is one chief cause of that fitful, super- 
ficial Christianity which so largely prevails. 

Nothing perhaps, then, can be a more valu- 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 85 

able instruction and help to the Christian than 
to view a meagre outline of the Church in its 
apostolic simplicity, purity, and splendor. 

Such a brief sketch, therefore, of the character- 
istics of the Church in its early and golden age, 
we here attempt to draw for the pious reader's eye. 

1. Separation from the World. While asceti- 
cism,— after the teaching and example of Christ, 
— was opposed, worldly amusements, pursuits, 
and cares, were looked upon as dangers as to 
which a Christian should be on his guard ; and 
the Christian life was generally regarded as a race, 
a warfare, and a self-denying bearing of the. cross 
of Christ. A Christian was to be in and with 
the world, and yet not of it. 

2. Joy in Martyrdom. So strong was love to 
Jesus and devotion to the Church, that when per- 
secution raged hotly, Christians, instead of shrink- 
ing from the dreadful baptism, eagerly snatched 
the martyr's crown from amid the breath of flame, 
rejoicing that they could suffer for Him who gave 
Himself for them. 

3. Brotherly Love and Unity. Christians 
everywhere recognized the holy tie of the Spirit. 
Their disputes were never suffered to come before 
a worldly tribunal. Wherever they met, they 
were not strangers. The Christian traveler found 
every believer's house a home ; and letters of 



86 HEAVENWARD. 

conference between different churches maintained 
the closest bonds of unity. 

4. Charity. This was a remarkable feature of 
the early Church. The Church's unfortunate 
were not, as too often now is the case, cast upon 
the world's cold pity, to the shame of Christ. 
Butj says St. Chrysostom, "The universal prac- 
tice was to maintain them out of the revenues of 
the Church," — the different churches vying with 
each other in this pious rivalry. 

When the Roman governor demanded of the 
deacon Laurentius that he produce the treasures 
of the Church, he brought out the widows and 
orphans, and said, " These are our treasures." 
Immediately thereafter the noble Christian hero 
was roasted alive. Homes for the sick, for the 
aged and infirm, for orphans, and for the enter- 
tainment of poor strangers, — of which Gibbon 
tells us that not a single one existed in the pagan 
world, — were everywhere erected. Thus did 
Charity impart her gentle radiance to the 
lovely spirit of primitive piety. 

5. Belief in the Presence of Christ in the Holy 
Communion. " It was generally realized that the 
Lord's Supper was a most holy mystery, and in- 
dispensable food of eternal life, — that the Body 
and the Blood of the Lord were mystically con- 
nected with the bread and wine, — and that those 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 87 

who in faith partook, enjoyed essential com- 
munion with Christ." * Any view making the 
Sacrament devoid of this great presence, and but 
an empty symbol instead of a means richly 
freighted and overflowing with grace, would have 
deeply wounded the conscience of the early 
Church. 

As the bread was handed to the communicant, 
the simple words were said : " This is Christ's 
Body ; " and as the cup was given : " This is 
Christ's Blood, — the cup of life." The recipient 
in each case as he took, answered " Amen," show- 
ing, also, the prominent place that the responsive 
feature held in primitive religious worship. 

6. Enthusiastic Celebration of the Holy Festi- 
vals. At these seasons, such was the cessation 
from worldly cares, that a solemn stillness rested 
upon country and city. The churches could 
not contain the multitudes that flocked to 
them. In regard to the Easter Festival, as an ex- 
ample, the Church historian, Neander, says : 
" Holy week was closed by the great Sabbath, on 
which many were baptized, and put on their 
white robes ; and in the evening the cities were 
illuminated, and appeared like streams of fire. 
The whole population poured along with torches 

* Kurtz's Church History. 



88 HEAVENWARD. 

to church, and vigils were kept till the dawn of 
the morning of universal jubilee, the feast of the 
Resurrection." 

7. Practice of Infant Baptism. This was uni- 
versal. In A. D. 252, a council of sixty-six 
bishops declared that its observance was general. 
And St. Origen, the most eminent and learned 
Church father of that period, says : " The Church 
has received, by tradition from the apostles, that 
infants should be baptized." 

8. Catechisation of the Young. Regular in- 
struction and training in religion, and the ar- 
rangement of inquirers into classes of catechu- 
mens for that purpose, were the method of pre- 
paring the baptized for a public profession in the 
Church by Confirmation, instead of relying upon 
sudden and powerful attempts to move the re- 
ligious feelings. 

9. A High Regard for the Symbol of the Cross. 
Affection for this touching and beautiful emblem 
was a marked feature of the early Church. It 
was thought to help the believer in " always 
bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord 
Jesus ; " and in warning him not to forget that 
he, like his Master, must be crucified to the 
world. The symbol of the Cross was that ex- 
ternal badge by which Christians and Christian 
churches were everywhere distinguished from the 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 89 

heathen, to whom it was a " stone of stnmbling 
and a rock of offence." 

Herein, also, was recognized that great truth 
of which a skillful general avails himself when 
he unfurls the flag or country's symbol over his 
troops to arouse their enthusiasm, viz., that man 
is a double being, spirit and nature, soul and 
body ; and that when a truth, by means of its 
outward symbol, speaks both to the mind and to 
the senses, it produces a far more powerful effect. 

10. Zeal for Missions. Feeling that they had 
themselves but lately been heathen, the early 
Christians sympathized deeply with those who 
knew not the blessed Messiah, whose coining had 
brought light and healing to a world lying in the 
shadow of death. Large and liberal contributions 
were accordingly given, even amid the Church's 
sore poverty, for this purpose. As Paul was the 
great missionary of the Cross, who spent his life, 
and finally lost it, in tours of preaching the gos- 
pel and planting churches, crossing from Asia into 
Europe, and bearing witness for Christ at Rome, 
so individual churches often employed and sup- 
ported special catechists and missionaries of their 
own, who traveled among the heathen, and de- 
voted all their time to evangelization. 

1 1. Strictness of Church Discipline. Whoever 
did not lead a consistent Christian life, but re- 



90 HEAVENWARD. 

lapsed into neglect and open sin, was at first re- 
buked, and that proving ineffectual, then expelled 
from the communion of the Church. The fear 
and favor of modern times in this respect were 
unknown. This winnowing of the chaff from the 
wheat, contributed greatly to the pureness of liv- 
ing characteristic of primitive Christians. 

12. A Constant Looking for the Coming of 
Christ, the regeneration of the earth, and the con- 
summation of the blessedness of the saints. This 
belief, resting upon the emphatic declarations of 
Christ, and upon the well-known expectations of 
the apostles, exerted a marked effect upon the 
lives of Christians, upon their walking with God, 
and upon their entire consecration to Him, whom 
they expected shortly to see coming upon the 
clouds of heaven. 

Such is a picture in brief of the primitive or 
Early Church, i. e., the visible Church of 
Christ, in that age of simplicity, when it had not 
become so much compromised by contact with 
the world as in the present day. And let the 
faithful disciple piously study it, and test his own 
life thereby. " These things," says the apostle, 
" happened for our example, and for our admoni- 
tion." We are to look back to the pious fathers, 
and to the good old ways ; and make them helps 
to us in attaining to the perfect spirit that was in 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 9 1 

Christ. For, " Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in 
the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where 
is the good way, and walk therein" (Jer. vi. 16.) 

The Reformation era thus also is full of 
the purest gospel light, and of the keenest grasp- 
ing of the principle of salvation, succeeding cen- 
turies rather having departed from the true evan- 
gelical faith then restored, than gotten beyond it, 
as the distinguished Dr. Dorner clearly demon- 
strates in his history of Protestantism. That age, 
too, like the primitive Church, shone eminent 
with the most illustrious examples of godly life. 

Luther, in particular, had a marvelous intui- 
tion for the mind of the Spirit, drawn from a 
deep and blessed Christian experience, and from 
very close fellowship with God, such as perhaps 
no other modern has possessed, so that the poet 
Coleridge says of him that he was " the most 
apostolic man after Paul," and John Bunyan de- 
clares of his writings : " I do prefer this book of 
Martin Luther, excepting the Holy Bible, before 
all the books that ever I have seen, as most fit for 
a wounded conscience." 

Although there is more of parade in modern 
piety, yet it falls below the depth, and purity, and 
holiness, and simple Christlike character, which 
were attained by the pious FATHERS. Look back 
then with reverence to the Church, in her haloed 



92 HEAVENWARD. 

mantle of the Past ! Hearken to the counsels, 
and follow in the footsteps of the godly saints of 
old; and be spiritual giants in Israel, even as 
they were ! 

" O for that flame of living fire, 

Which shone so bright in saints of old ; 
Which bade their souls to heaven aspire,— 
Calm in distress, in danger bold. 

" Where is that spirit, Lord, which dwelt 

In Abraham's breast, and seal'd him Thine? 
Which made Paul's heart with rapture melt, 
And glow with energy divine ? 

" That spirit which from age to age, 

Proclaimed Thy love, and taught Thy ways ? 
Brightened Isaiah's vivid page, 

And breathed in David's hallowed lays ? 

" Is not Thy grace as mighty now, 
As when Elijah felt its power ; 
When glory beamed from Moses' brow, 
Or Luther braved the scorching hour? " 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 93 




SECTION III. 
Jfrutte, 

|0 bear holy fruit in the kingdom of God, 
is an indispensable requisite in running 
the heavenward race. No sooner have 
we entered upon our good confession than this 
must be the uppermost thought that breaks from 
our lips, — " Wist ye not that I must be about my 
Father's business?" Our Saviour said to His 
disciples, " I have chosen you and ordained you, 
that ye should go and bring forth fruity Every 
servant must be a laborer in the vineyard of the 
great Husbandman. It is required of a steward 
of the Lord that he be found faithful ; and that 
he bring his golden sheaves with him in the last 
great day. 

Every new-born soul, then, should be filled 
with a holy zeal, not to waste his priceless oppor- 
tunities, but to bear fruit that shall live forever. 
Our works, too, are the test of our piety. " By 
their EruiTS ye shall know them." " Faith, if 
it have not works, is dead." Where Faith does 



94 HEAVENWARD. 

not bring forth works, rest assured that it is not 
a genuine, living one. But holy activity and 
fruit-bearing, feed anew the flame of faith, and 
keep it ever growing and brightening. The 
fruits, then, of a good Christian race, consider. 



m 



CHAPTER L 

A PRECIOUS EXPERIENCE. 

[HEN one hearkens to the heavenly call, 
consecrates himself entirely to God, and 
fights well the good warfare, there is given him 
a blessed inner experience. This is the witness 
of the Spirit. It is a sense within, testifying that 
the Holy Ghost dwells in the soul, that the love 
of God is shed abroad in the heart, and that, by 
the blood of Jesus, our heavy burden of sin is 
rolled away, and our bosom filled with unspeak- 
able blessedness. For " the Spirit itself beareth 
witness with our spirit that we are the children of 
God." This experience is a personal grasping of 
salvation, a realization that the grace offered to 
us has been appropriated and made our own. 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 95 

It is the assurance of faith, that we are of the 
fold of the Good Shepherd. It is an internal wit- 
ness by which we know the voice of Jesus, and 
that He will never suffer any one to pluck us out 
of His Father's hand. 

It is a conviction of perseverance, a " being 
confident of this very thing, that He which hath 
begun a good work in us will perform it until the 
day of Jesus Christ." (Phil. i. 6.) It is a deep 
and immovable repose in the truth of God's 
Word, and- in the certainty of His holy promises, 
so that we can rest calmly in Him, even though 
the world totter at our feet. 

It is a lively hope, begotten through the resur- 
rection of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are of 
the elect, and that we shall be "kept by the 
power of God," unto u an inheritance incorrupti- 
ble, undefiled, and that fadeth not away." 

It is an apprehension of the mystical union with 
Christ — that even as the branch is joined to the 
vine, as the member to the Body, so are w r e one 
in Him ; — and that as He stooped to take on our 
nature, He has likewise raised us up unto Him- 
self, and that He shares all our sins and sorrows, 
and that we shall share all His righteousness and 
glory in the presence of His Father. 

It is an unutterable feeling of love awakened 
by the surpassing grace displayed by the Most 



96 HEAVENWARD. 

High toward us poor sinners, in giving His Son 
to die for us, and in overruling the awful curse 
of sin, so that it but reveals unknown and im- 
measurable heights and depths of divine good- 
ness, and causes the glory of the trinal Godhead 
to shine with a new lustre and power. 

It is a rapture in the Holy Ghost,— -visions of 
eternal glories brought near by the power of faith, 
like that of St. Paul when he was caught up to 
the third heavens, and saw and heard what it was 
not lawful for a man to utter. 

It is a conscious growth in grace, so that it is 
a fact seen by the world, and not unmarked by 
ourselves, that our faith grows stronger, our be- 
setting sins weaker, our temper more heavenly, 
and that the likeness of God ever more and more 
appears manifest in us. 

Such is the true Christian's holy experience, 
— his personal, experimental knowledge that he 
is born again. And this is one of the most 
blessed fruits that God can grant to the believer. 

In a world of such doubt, and darkness, and 
uncertainty, blessed be His holy name that He 
has not left us without a testimony of Himself so 
clear and unmistakable, that we may cry out in 
all confidence,' 4 1 know that my Redeemer liveth," 
and that even yet in time we may feel that we 
have a title to a celestial home, which neither 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 97 

death, nor Satan, nor hell can ever wrest from our 
hands. 

The nature of his individual experience is a 
matter of the greatest concern to every believer. 
And well, indeed, should it be. Often with 
anxious concern will the pious disciple ask him- 
self, Do I know that I am born again ? Am I 
sure that I have the witness of the Spirit ? Am 
I quite certain of my crown? But while thus 
eagerly asking ourselves this question, do we take 
the necessary means to bring about this ex- 
perience ? 

Is it not here true of us that "the height 
charms us, but the steps to it do not, and with 
the summit ever in our eye, we yet linger on the 
plain ? " We are to blame ourselves that our 
inner life is often so faint and cold. We want 
to be sure of heaven, and yet not to live and 
prepare for heaven. But when we meditate 
much upon our sins, and contemplate tenderly 
the sorrows of Jesus ; and devoutly and daily read 
the Word ; and with utmost fervor celebrate the 
Holy Sacrament ; and continue constant in 
prayer ; and are zealous in pious works ; and 
search for salvation as for hid treasures, then the 
Holy Ghost will be outpoured upon us, and we 
" shall know Him, for He dwelleth with us, and 
shall be in us ! " (John xiv. 17.) 
7 



98 HEAVENWARD. 

Let us remember, also, that this hallowed ex- 
perience is rather the fruit than the seed of piety. 
Too many look for it at the beginning of the 
course, and are discouraged because they do not 
have it. Many, indeed, would make so great a 
mistake as to demand sure evidence of it even 
before permitting one to enter upon the Christian 
race. But faith, and not experience, is the con- 
dition of salvation. This clear experience often, 
indeed, comes not until late in the Christian race. 
It is the rarest and most golden fruit borne by the 
tree of life ; and to few is it given on earth to 
taste much of this manna of Paradise. Only at 
intervals do these extraordinary seasons of a 
blessed experience of saving grace pass over us, 
like a breath of heaven, and then we are on our 
weary, routine path again. 

We cannot expect always to be borne along 
upon the wings of eagles. Many Christians, in- 
deed, of most undoubted piety and of tireless good 
works, have longed many years in vain, and even 
gone to their graves without that testimony, clear 
as the sunlight, which would have been such an 
unspeakable comfort to them. With them it was, 
indeed, true, that as St. Paul says, they " walked 
by faith and not by sight," through all their 
lives. 

And others, again, have professed a mighty and 



THE CHRISTIAN RACK. 99 

rapturous experience, whose lives plainly showed 
that they were under a strong delusion. 

L,et us, then, use every means, and wrestle with 
God in prayer, that He give us a precious personal 
experience of the joys of saving grace. But let us 
meekly leave the measure thereof to Him, assured 
that if we are but found faithful, our merciful 
heavenly Father will never forget His covenant ; 
but bring us at last to drink of the full cup of 
spiritual rapture at His right hand, where there 
are pleasures for evermore. 

Within Thy clefts I love to hide, 

When darkness o'er me closes ; 
Where peace and light serene abide, 

And my stilled heart reposes. 
My soul exults to dwell secure, 

Thy strong mountains round her ; 
She dares to count her triumph sure, 

Nor fears lest hell confound her ; 
Though tumults startle earth and sea, 
Thou changeless Rock, they shake not Thee. 

From Thee, O Rock, once smitten, flow 

L,ife-giviug streams forever ; 
And whoso doth their sweetness know, 

He henceforth thirsteth never. 
My lips have touched the crystal tide, 

And feel no more returning 
The fever that so long I tried 

To cool, yet still felt burning ; 
Ah, wondrous Well Spring ! brimming o'er 
With living waters evermore. 

tOFC. 



IOO HEAVENWARD. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. 

A FRUIT of following closely in His hallowed 
footsteps, and of copying His faultless tem- 
per, and of exhibiting His pure and perfect ex- 
ample, is the imitation OF Christ. A good 
confession demands a devout aud godly walk. 
Nothing is so beautiful to men and so pleasing 
to God, as the spectacle of an unblemished Chris- 
tian life, on whose pure surface is mirrored the 
lovely image of the Saviour. Such a sight is a 
more powerful argument in behalf of the Gospel 
than all the " golden-mouthed " eloquence that 
ever was uttered. To " have a good report of 
them that are without," and to compel their re- 
gard for the faith we profess is the sacred duty of 
every member of the Church. 

It is when our actions lead the world to " take 
knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus," 
that our light is not hid under a bushel, but 
shines. like a beacon-fire to guide the steps of 
the traveler along the way of life. If we bear 
the name of Christ, let us also show His spirit. 
But to attain this holy temper, we must ever 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. IOI 

keep before us the imitation of Christ. " Let 
this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
Jesus,' 7 says the apostle, and, "If any man have 
not the spirit of Christ he is none of His." (Rom. 
viii. 9.) We must, therefore, ever follow Jesus as 
our great exemplar. 

We are enjoined to be "epistles of Christ, 
known and read of all men." The image of 
Christ is thus ever drawn anew by the Holy 
Ghost in the spotless lives of the saints. And it 
is when men thus see the spirit of Jesus appear- 
ing again in flesh and blood, that they are more 
drawn and attracted to it, than even as found 
upon those enduring tablets of stone in which it 
is preserved in the written records of the New 
Testament. 

Our lives as well as our words should declare 
plainly, like those of Jesus did, that we are "pil- 
grims and strangers " here, that however attract- 
ive these earthly plains, we seek a country, a 
city yet to come. 

When " Enoch walked with God, he was not, 
for God took him," so close is the path of perfect 
holiness to the shining way to life. The Psalm- 
ist, therefore, desiring thus to abide in the way 
of the Lord with a true and perfect heart, prayed, 
" Teach me thy way, O Lord : I will walk in 
Thy truth : unite my heart to fear Thy name.' 



102 HEAVENWARD. 

(Psalm lxxxvi. n.) When the pious can safely 
affirm, " Jesus is our pattern and guide," — " Our 
conversation is in heaven," then also it may be 
said, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of 
God." 

As our profession has been a high and holy 
one, so it becomes us that "we walk worthy of 
the vocation wherewith we are called." Having 
professed ourselves His followers, let us also walk . 
in the footsteps of Christ. Saying that we are 
the Lord's, let us give our bodies and our souls 
a living sacrifice unto Him. Holding aloft the 
Christian banner, let our saintly lives honor it. 
Every Christian, by the power of his example, 
through the imitation of Christ, is either 
working for or against God, for or against the 
Cross, for or against the salvation of souls. 

Eternity alone can tell the incalculable results, 
either for good or evil, that have been effected by 
Christlike examples. Example is a sculptor, 
whose chisel working silently, and yet with a 
sleepless hand, forms and fashions human char- 
acter far more than aught else. It is by a shining 
and gentle Christian example, especially, that the 
poor and the sufferer, deprived of almost every 
other opportunity, can yet greatly glorify God, 
and win many to seek the peace that they have 
found. 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 103 

Too many church members fall below their 
good profession in their practice. St. Paul thus 
bewails these sad cases : " For many walk, of 
whom I now tell you even weeping, that they 
are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end 
is destruction, whose glory is in their shame, who 
mind earthly things." (Phil. iii. 19.) They 
walk in the flesh and not in the spirit ; they wor- 
ship this world as their idol ; they show the 
imitation of Satan rather than that of Christ ; 
their hearts are set upon vanity ; their example 
is a stumbling-block instead of a help to poor, 
wavering souls. By them none will have been 
lifted up to life, but many will have been brought 
down to death, and the blood of such immortal 
souls will be required at their hands. 

O then, beloved confessor of the Faith, ask 
yourself what walk you are maintaining in the 
presence of your brethren, and in the observation 
of those that are without, and whether or not 
they must say of you that your life presents a 
holy imitation OF Christ. Examine prayer- 
fully your example, and weigh the influence it 
may be exerting upon your companions. Look 
to your temper, to your affections, to your con- 
duct when tried, and to all your outward and 
visible acts, and see whether you manifest the 
fruits of the Spirit, which are : " Love, Joy, Peace, 



1 64 HEAVENWARD. 

Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, 
Meekness, Temperance." (Gal. v. 23.) 

What a great awakening do not all church- 
members need upon this subject of the imitation 
OF Christ, their Lord and Master, by a godly 
walk and conversation. To examine the lives of 
some of them one would almost wonder some- 
times whether the power of the gospel had ever 
reached their hearts, and whether Jesus was at all 
their pattern and example. And considering the 
lamentable defects of many Christians in this re- 
gard, it is a marvel that the religion of Christ has 
advanced as much as it has in the world. On the 
other hand, however, we must remember that the 
history of the Church has shown many of the 
sweetest, saintliest, most Christly lives that have 
transfigured our weak human nature, lives of such 
rare spiritual beauty that they gleam like a river 
of light running through a land of darkness. 

Let it then be our supreme concern that we may 
honor the faith we confess ; and that from our ir- 
reproachable walk, there may shine out a winning 
lustre of the gospel, and a beautiful image of 
Jesus, which shall disarm many a foe, and con- 
vince men of the power of redeeming grace, and 
bring them to follow the lowly Nazarene, " who 
did no sin, 5 ' and in whose " mouth was found no 
guile." 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 105 

CHAPTER III. 

USEFULNESS IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

A KINGDOM of evil, and a kingdom of truth 
and righteousness, are on earth opposed to 
each other. Of the first, Satan is the head, and 
all wicked men the servants ; and every eye can 
see the zeal and activity with which they fight 
for their bad cause. The kingdom of God can 
only then be advanced by similar watchfulness 
and activity on the part of the pious. 

Our Lord was a notable example of untiring 
zeal in the kingdom of truth. It is said of Him 
that " He went about doing good." That He 
went throughout every city and village, preach- 
ing and showing " the glad tidings of the king- 
dom of God." And He says of Himself, " I must 
work the works of Him that sent me, while it is 
day ; the night cometh when no man can work." 
(John ix. 4.) 

The great husbandman Himself comes at every 
hour of the day, and calls to the children of the 
kingdom, " Why stand ye here all the day idle ? 
go, work in my vineyard." It is said also of that 
great scene in the end of the world : " The fire 



Io6 HEAVENWARD. 

shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. 
If any man's work abide which he hath built 
thereupon, he shall receive a reward." (i Cor. 
iii. 14.) 

It is beyond all question, therefore, that the 
stewards of the Lord must give account in the last 
day of the use they have made of their Master's 
goods, and of the precious opportunities allotted 
to them. Every man must show that his talents 
were not hid in a napkin, but employed in the 
great work of advancing the kingdom of God. 
Every confessor of Christ who looks for a recom- 
pense at the resurrection of the just, must bring 
his sheaves with him, and hold them aloft to the 
searching gaze of the Judge. Thus, only, can we 
be faithful. Thus, only, will we have spent the 
twelve hours of our day in a manner pleasing to 
God : when we have " made it our meat and our 
drink to do the will of Him who hath sent us." 
Tholuck justly charges the Christian, " See to it 
that in your daily actions the love of God is the 
motive, the will of God the law, and the honor of 
God the aim." 

And this great truth — the necessity of making 
our usefulness seen and felt in the kingdom of 
God, — is a solemn question for every member of 
the Church of Christ. The field is the world ; 
but the Church is the kingdom of God ; and it is 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. 107 

by the Church and through the Church that we 
must make our activity manifest, and that we 
must bear holy fruits in the cause of piety, and 
for the good of mankind. Every Christian con- 
gregation is thus a society pledged to labor and 
service in behalf of the gospel, in behalf of the 
conversion of sinners, in the furtherance of mis- 
sions, and in sowing broadcast the seed of Truth. 
It is not only the ministry and deacons, who are 
to work, but every one has his responsibility. 

How many drones are there not found in every 
congregation of believers ? Some are too proud 
to put their hand to the gospel plough ; some are 
too selfish and do not like to mingle with others ; 
some will work well if sufficiently honored and 
noticed, but if they cannot be at the head, will do 
nothing ; some are merely indifferent and uncon- 
cerned ; and others, yet again, will not try to make 
themselves useful, because they are obscure, and 
think their little help of no value. But not one 
of these classes will be able to stand in the great 
day of accounts. Instead of receiving the plaudit, 
" Well done, good and faithful servant," they will 
be reckoned unprofitable stewards. 

Whatever be our position, we must work and 
bring forth results. " Cast thy bread upon the 
waters and it shall return to thee after many 
days," is the command. God's word will not re- 



108 HEAVENWARD. 

turn unto Him void ; but wherever there is a 
fervent, sincere effort put forth to do good, the 
all-accomplishing Spirit of the Lord will bless it 
and make it effectual. 

All can pray. All can speak a word in season. 
All can utter a cheering voice to the band of 
laborers. All can give a mite to the cause. 
There is an open door for every one ; there are 
ten thousand opportunities to serve our Master, 
if love but keeps a watchful eye, eager to seise 
them. 

We can build up Zion. We can cast our little 
net into the great ocean of sin to catch immortal 
souls. Though but one Spirit, there is a diversity 
of gifts and Christian graces ; every one has his 
special gift, which it is his duty to search out and 
know, and every one must labor according to that 
talent which God has given him. 

One will find his sphere in the Stmday school ; 
and in no place is there a rarer opportunity for 
labor that will result in a usefulness for time and 
eternity, such as can never be estimated. The 
teachers of the young,, by pious, attentive devo- 
tion to duty, can do a work scarcely second to 
preaching the gospel from the pulpit. 

Another will find his opportunity to be useful, 
through the large means which God has given 
him. And another can be of great value, by ac- 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. IO9 

tivity, concern, and wise counsel in the manage- 
ment of the temporal affairs of the Church. 

And yet another, as he hears the Macedonian 
cry : " Come over and help us," as he sees the 
hedges of Zion broken down, and her vineyards 
going to waste, and as with Jesus, his heart bleeds 
that there are too few laborers to gather the great 
harvests, whose golden grains are fast falling 
upon the ground, will feel himself called to enter 
the gospel ministry. His conscience will not suf- 
fer him to hold his peace while multitudes of 
souls are perishing for want of the Bread of Life. 
But, like Paul, a " necessity is laid upon him 
to preach the gospel." And, as again and again, 
he hears the voice of the Lord calling, " Whom 
shall I send, and who will go for us ? " he can 
withhold himself no longer, but, surrendering 
the pursuit of earthly goods and honors, he 
answers, " Here am I, send me," and though 
henceforth toil and sacrifice await him here be- 
low, yet shall his reward be great in the king- 
dom of heaven, and thousands saved through his 
instrumentality shall rise up and call him "blessed. 

Thus we can all, if we but wish, make our- 
selves useful. It is not the learned, or the great, 
or the rich, but it is the little army of true, de- 
voted workers in any congregation, by whom 
progress is made in the holy cause of the Lord. 



IIO HEAVENWARD. 

lyet us, then, be up and doing ; and let us be found 
faithful ; and when summoned to our account, 
may it be adjudged of us that we have been profit- 
able servants in the kingdom of God, whose 
usefulness shall be awarded a diadem, thickly 
gemmed with souls. 



CHAPTER IV. 



BEARING THE CROSS. 



CHRIST and Him crucified ! exclaimed the 
apostle, as his heart overflowed at the mighty 
wonder of redemption. And thus is it that Christ 
and THE CROSS are ever inseparably connected. 
When all other things are barred, and we look 
but upon that single aspect which most of all ex- 
presses the character of Jesus, and which tells it 
in one word, that word, that symbol is the Cross. 
He was " a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief." He was " despised and rejected of men." 
His crown was a wreath of thorns. Transfixed 
upon the cruel tree, His soul endured the baptism 
of the very woes of hell. Never, perhaps, in 
eternity can we know, at least, never can we feel, 
what He suffered for us. 

But not only in that final hour did He suffer. 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. Ill 

But "even in His earthly course He was never 
separated from the Cross. It varied in form, 
never in nature ; it was only less prominent, not 
less real at Bethlehem than at Calvary. The 
Cross was never dissociated from the life ; He car- 
ried it in His heart long before the mob laid it on 
His shoulder, and had suffered all its agonies be- 
fore the nail was driven into His flesh." 

The mystery of the Cross, which Christ thus 
must needs bear, is found in szn } which alone by 
this severe means could be overcome. Therefore 
the apostle says : " Who His own self bare our 
sins in His body on the tree, that we, being dead 
to sins, should live unto righteousness." (i Peter 
ii. 24.) Through His sufferings Christ learned 
obedience, and was made perfect ; and by His 
sharp pains of crucifixion, atonement was pur- 
chased from God, and we poor sinners were recon- 
ciled to the Father. Nothing but that offer- 
ing of precious blood could wash out the else 
ineradicable dye of guilt, and clothe us in a wed- 
ding garment of purity. 

The Cross is the symbol of love. It points us 
to the victory of suffering love upon the hill of 
Calvary. Love attains its holiest strength in sacri- 
fice. The flower of love blossoms most richly, 
not under the smiles of a throne, but beneath the 
dark shade of the Cross. 



112 HEAVENWARD. 

The Cross is the symbol of purity. Suffering 
refines human nature. Tears and pain chasten 
the spirit, and winnow from it the dross of carnal- 
ity, and foster the graces of religion. Therefore 
says the Scripture : " Behold we count them 
happy which endure." " No chastening for the 
present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous ; 
nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable 
fruit of righteousness." Jesus Himself shrank 
from the Cross. In Gethsemane He prayed, as 
the drops of His sweat of blood bedewed the 
garden, " O my Father, if it be possible, let this 
cup pass from me." (Matt. xxvi. 39.) But hav- 
ing straitened His nature to the supreme trial, 
His victory purchased for us " a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of glory." 

And this bearing the Cross, even though human 
nature shrink from it, is a needed discipline for 
which every disciple must be ready. He must 
be prepared to follow his Master, even though 
His footprints be traced in blood. " He that 
taketh not his Cross" says Jesus to every candi- 
date for the heavenly crown, " and followeth 
after me, is not worthy of me." (Luke xiv. 27.) 
And, says the apostle : " They that are Christ's 
have crucified the flesh with the affections and 
lusts." Thus also the pious fathers of the Ref- 
ormation taught: " For our churches have ever 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. II3 

given instruction concerning the Holy Cross 
which Christians are under obligation to bear ; 
and this is a true, sincere, not a fictitious morti- 
fication." * We may shrink from this test, and 
from bearing this last fruit of the Christlike tem- 
per, but if we evade our cross, let us remember 
that " he that findeth his life " in temporal wel- 
fare, " shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life 
for my sake shall find it " in eternal blessedness. 

All here depends upon our love. If we have 
that unutterable devotion which the pardoned 
sinner feels as he looks upon his thorn-crowned 
Redeemer, our cross will grow easy, and we will 
bear it gladly, counting it all joy that we may 
suffer for His Name. The Christian who is 
sorely tried will be nearest to his Lord, and will 
drink the deepest and purest wine of heavenly 
grace, and will be refreshed with ecstasies in the 
spirit unknown to those who ever bask in softness 
and ease. 

Bearing the Cross, the tempter retreats far from 
us, and no other resort will so effectually master 
besetting sins and destroy the power of indwell- 
ing evil. He who denies himself for the glory 
of God ; he who is crucified to somewhat of 
worldly joys, that he may advance the gospel, 
most nearly repeats the example of suffering 
* Augsburg Confession, Article XXVI. 



114 HEAVENWARD. 

sacrifice set by his Master, and, therefore, follows 
closest in His hallowed footsteps. 

This is the point in the Christian way where 
many pilgrims faint. When they come to the 
CROSS, and when renunciation and self-denial are 
demanded, then they turn back again to the 
world. Thus is it that the Cross of Christ is the 
sharp test that separates the unworthy from the 
faithful. In the merciful providence of God, the 
painful Cross which believers once had to bear 
is not now demanded of them. We are not per- 
secuted ; we are not hunted from our peaceful 
homes ; we are not thrown to wild beasts ; or 
fastened to the burning stake ; or impaled upon 
the bloody tree. 

But still there is a Cross for every one. 
We must be crucified to carnal pleasure. We 
must be crucified to the love of riches. We must 
be crucified to our natural sinful tempers. We 
must be crucified to worldly idolatry and the 
spirit of pride. We must endure burdens for the 
kingdom of God. We must bear the Cross of the 
Church, that she may prosper by our sacrifices. 
We must sometimes be crucified to innocent and 
rightful amusements, at which a weak brother 
might be tempted. And we must sometimes be 
crucified to ease, that we may comfort the sick, 
cheer the forsaken, and uplift the falling. 



THE CHRISTIAN RACE. II5 

It is true that there are many who have taken 
the name of Christ, but have never taken up His 
Cross. They have never sacrificed the least in 
His cause. To them the narrow way has been 
all one of velveted softness and gentle ease. But 
disclaiming the crucial test, they also lose the 
right to be called disciples. Let, then, the dis- 
ciple whose face is set heavenward, make 
Christ and Him crucified his great exemplar, 
and take the Cross of tHe sorely tried King upon 
his shoulders. And blessed to his soul will prove 
its burden. It will give his conscience rest. It 
will make his bosom pure. It will lead him to 
drink of living raptures in the spirit. It will 
woo Christ to meet him in the way, and with 
smiling approval, guide him on to the heavenly 
fold. 

" Via Crucis ! Via Lucis ! " 

Yes ! the rough and thorny way 
Which the humble Christian chooses, 

Gleams with an unearthly ray. 

He who trod the path before us 

Left a brightness on the road, 
And its light is falling o'er us, 

As we tread the way to God. 

There are thorns that often wound us, 

There are barriers in our way, 
And sometimes the night surrounds us, 

Lighted by no cheering ray. 



Il6 HEAVENWARD. 

But THK Cross is ever beaming, 
Darkness cannot dim its light ; 

All that ever veils its gleaming 
Is our sin-beclouded sight. 




PART III. 

Cfje Sfrlesfceb <®oal. 

jLL of human life is only a preparation, 
there is something beyond. As our 
earthly years draw to a close, and our 
race nears THE GOAL, our gaze is turned ahead. 
But in this last great hour, when the sea of mys- 
tery opens before us, all depends upon the wisdom 
with which we have improved the past. If we 
have not set out in youth to seek the Christian 
prize, if we have not spent our day in the fear of 
the Lord, if we have no memorial stored up on 
high, uncheered by hope will we find THE goal ? 
But golden is the sunset of that life, which 
reaches the season of old age, with the consola- 
tions of piety, and with the smile of the God of 
Jacob resting upon it. The Scripture says : 
" Mark the perfect man and behold the upright ; 
for the end of that man is peace." (Ps. xxxvii. 
37.) But of the wicked it is said : " There is a 
way which seemeth right unto a man, but the 
end thereof are the ways of death." Having, 

(117) 



1 1 8 HEAVENWARD. 

then, in the previous pages followed the pious 
pilgrim, from the day that he set out upon his 
good beginning, through the dangers and trials, 
and the joys and comforts of the heavenward 
way, let us now look upon that tranquil season 
when he approaches THE goal of the race, and 
when he has nearly laid hold of the heavenly 
crown. 



CHAPTER I. 

HAPPY MEMORIES. 



TlJOPE writes the poetry of youth ; memory, 
Wj that of old age. In youth, it is the joyous 
prospect of the future that paints the sky with 
bright visions, but in old age it is the retrospect 
of the past on which the mind fondly dwells. 
Memory, then, is ever busy. In the crowded 
throng, or in the silent solitude, it is still the 
scenes that once were, — the history in which we 
have been active figures, — the days of old, — to 
which, when our race is nearly run, we are ever 
recurring. 

Sad and unwelcome, indeed, is this truth to 



THE BLESSED GOAL. 119 

the ungodly. No pleasing reminiscences will 
memory have for them. Eagerly, if they but 
could, would they blot out the past. For it is 
but a record that pierces their souls with regret, 
and awakens stings of conscience that cannot be 
quieted. Grace rejected, priceless opportunities 
wasted, eternal life lost, souls ruined by their 
evil deeds and example, such alone is the story 
which the past brings in accusing review before 
them. 

But to the pious, how blessed is this retrospect, 
as it hues the twilight of life's departing day. 
To their souls the past, too, is a radiant prophecy 
of the future. It tells them a story of beautiful 
leadings of Providence, of gentlest mercies con- 
cealed in cloud and not discerned until after- 
wards, and of guardian angels hovering near, 
and granting invisible help in every dangerous 
and trying hour of their pilgrimage. Through 
the thin veil of marvelous events, they now see 
plainly the mysterious hand that was overruling 
all for good. And that same Almighty protec- 
tion, so visible in the past, fills them with hope- 
ful assurance for the future, even as David, when 
he mused upon the wonders of God shown to 
him in the days of old, cried out : " When I 
remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate upon 
Thee in the night-watches. Because Thou hast 



120 HEAVENWARD. 

been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy 
wings will I rejoice." (Ps. lxiii. 6.) 

Step by step, across a desert waste, 

The pillar of the cloud has led me on ; 
I followed silently a path untraced, 

Knowing the future only when 'twas gone. 

Had I foreknown the hours of weary pain, 
The strife of foes, the darkness and dismay, 

All that o'ertook me on the distant plain — 
How had I started from Thy chosen way ! 

But with the trial came the daily strength, 
And in the darkest night " a light of fire," 

Till I have learned to wait for Thee at length, 
And trust Thy guidance with a hushed desire. 

How blessed, then, when old age can spend its 
remaining hours in abundantly uttering the 
memory of the great goodness of God, and in 
singing of the faithfulness of the Lord ! It is 
the holy autumn of piety, in which the soul, 
ripened by the storms and sunshine of life, hangs 
like golden fruit upon the tree of humanity, 
while a tranquil calm, a gentle resignation, 
soothing memories, and blessed hopes, smile on 
every side. 

And though in this retrospect there will be 
much to teach us humility, much to convince us of 
unworthiness, much to grieve us that we have 
not been more zealous laborers in the kingdom 
of God, and that we have not attained unto the 



THE BLESSED GOAL. 121 

piety of the fathers, yet may we be able even inno- 
cently to cry out with the boldness of pious Job : 
" My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let 
it go ; my heart shall not reproach me so long as 
I live. Because I delivered the poor that cried, 
and the fatherless, and him that had none to help 
him. The blessing of him that was ready to 
perish came upon me ; and I caused the widow's 
heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and 
it clothed me ; and my judgment was as a robe 
and a diadem." (Job xxix. 14.) 

For, by the blood of Jesus cleansing us, and 
the indwelling of the Holy Ghost guiding and 
strengthening us, we may have won many a vic- 
tory over the Tempter, and rejoiced in many ad- 
vances in grace, and proved ourselves frequent 
angels of charity and healing to wounded, sor- 
rowing hearts, the retrospect of which will cause 
our musing souls to thrill with rapture. 

Such are the blessed memories which cheer 
the pilgrim as he nears the end of his race. They 
are approving voices of a well-spent past. They 
are the music of good deeds, whose soothing 
strains are ever thereafter sweetly attendant upon 
the pious soul. They are the flowers that bloom 
in the garden of a godly old age, and that adorn 
it with even a rarer glory and a richer fragrance 
than that of youth. 



122 HEAVENWARD. 

O then ! so live in the fear of God, and walk 
in the holy paths of religion, that thou mayest 
not wish to erase one line of the past, or have one 
deed to blot out, or one scene over which to shed 
a tear ! But that thou mayest invite Memory to 
come and walk with thee, and to while thy weary 
hours with pleasing pictures of the vicissitudes of 
thine earthly journey, while Hope with prophetic 
eye enters the veil of the future, and feeds upon 
joys to come. 



CHAPTER II. 

READINESS FOR DEATH. 

TJTHE thought of Death is indeed a startling 
^ one to the soul that has spent its life in 
vanity and impiety. For, Death to such means 
the day of reckoning for misused talents and 
opportunities, the coming unprepared into the 
presence of the Maker. 

But, it is a blessed reward of a pious pilgrim- 
age, that Death is shorn of his terrors. It is the 
one who has walked with God, who has laid hold 
upon the atoning Lamb, and who has trusted to 
the Word and Promises, who can look with un- 
blanched cheek at the fearful mystery of his final 



THE BLESSED GOAL. 1 23 

change. What can thus be a more noble and 
affecting picture of the calmness, fortitude, and 
tranquillity, with which the servant of God con- 
templates the King of Terrors, than that afforded 
by the Apostle Paul, when, — feeling that his race 
is nearly run, — he utters these tranquil words : 
" For I am now ready to be offered, and the 
time of my departure is at hand. I have fought 
the good fight, I have finished my course, I have 
kept the faith." And again, he speaks with still 
more confidence, declaring that he has " a desire 
to depart and be with Christ, which is far better" 
(Phil. i. 23.) 

It is then a characteristic of the Christian, 
and a result of having run his race in the fear of 
God, that as his retrospect only recalls blessed 
memories, so his outlook into the unknown future 
does not shake his calmness. He is not over- 
whelmed at the thought of meeting his last 
enemy, but is ready and waiting for Death ; and 
covered by the costly robe of Jesus's righteous- 
ness, he does not shrink from confronting the 
record of his life, nor has he such an absorbing 
fondness for earthly joys, but that he can at any 
time bid them adieu. He may, it is true, be in a 
strait, desiring also to live for the Church, for 
duty, work and progress, and for those tender 
ties which bind him to near ones in the flesh, but 



124 HEAVENWARD. 

even these precious concerns he is willing to 
commit into the keeping of Him who doeth all 
things well. 

The true Christian, therefore, is ever ready for 
his departure. He has in many respects been a 
stranger here, his home, his affections, and his 
hope, have been in the better land. iVnd now, as 
he sees that life's spring and summer have flown, 
and that winter's snows are whitening his head, 
he knows that Death is knocking at the door, 
that the startling summons may at any moment 
reach his ear, and that soon he u goeth to his 
long home, and the mourners go about the 
streets ; " but he is neither distressed nor taken 
by surprise. 

As pious Simeon, when he had beheld the 
promised Messiah, prayed with a holy content- 
ment, " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant de- 
part in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salva- 
tion," so is it our fellowship with Christ by the 
power of Faith, that prepares us for a peaceful 
and blessed departure. As it has been good to 
commune with Jesus so dimly here, in the Church, 
His earthly sanctuary, so do we feel that it will 
be yet far better to hold communion with our 
blessed Lord, eye to eye and face to face, in the 
temple above. 

This, too, is the secret of the Christian's readi- 



THE BLESSED GOAL. 1 25 

ness for this dread visitor. To him Death has 
no terrible meaning. True, there may be a sharp 
physical struggle ; but all else is only bright, 
hopeful, and serene. Death to him is the blessed 
door to glorious life. It is the toiler at rest, the 
warrior at peace, the pilgrim forever at home. It 
will throw a mantle of oblivion over the sins and 
sorrows and heartaches of time, and draw back 
that veil which hides the glories that eye hath 
not seen, and that imagination's most soaring 
wing has not attained. 

To him, therefore, waiting for Death is but A 

LOOKING FOR THE BLESSED COMING OF THE IyORD 

and Saviour, even as it was the custom of the 
early Christians to view it as a — " Looking for 
that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of 
the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 
(Titus ii. 13.) Joy, then, hallowed peace, and 
blissful hope, fill his breast, as he surveys his de- 
parture near at hand, and instead of depression 
and alarm, he can cry out in rapt welcome : 

We wait for ThkK — all-glorious One ! 
We look for Thine appearing ! 
We hear Thy name, and on Thy throne 
We see Thy presence cheering, 

Faith even now 

Uplifts its brow, 
And sees the lyord descending, 
And with Him bliss unending. 



126 HEAVENWARD. 

We wait for Thee ! With certain hope- 
The time will soon be over ; 
With childlike longings we look up, 
Thy glory to discover. 

bliss ! To share 

Thy triumph there, 
When home, with joy and singing, 
The Lord His saints is bringing. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE VICTORY. 

CROSSING the swelling Jordan toward the 
shining shore will ever be regarded by the 
Christian pilgrim as the most trying, as it is the 
last, struggle in the journey Heavenward. It 
is the supreme conflict of his soul. It is the most 
solemn and critical scene in which he can ever 
appear. He is then in the portals of that world 
of mystery, into which he enters so helpless, so 
timorous, and so entirely in the hands of Omnip- 
otence. He sees then how absolutely his dearest 
destiny is at the control of an all-merciful Father. 
And oh ! of what inestimable value is it in that 
hour to look back upon a life of Faith, of Piety, 
of Prayer, of Bearing the Cross, and bringing 



THE BLESSED GOAL. 1 27 

forth holy fruits for God in the brief day allotted 
us ! Without these hallowed memories of Piety, 
cheering us, and without the hand of Jesus bear- 
ing up our fainting heads, we would surely sink 
to rise no more as the awful billows sweep over us. 

Many Christians, in considering this supreme 
moment, often fear lest after all it will be a dark 
time for them, and their faith grow weak, and 
their hope prove to have had a false foundation. 
But while to guard against such a fall amid the 
pains of death, we should live soberly and wisely, 
and pass the time of our sojourning in godly 
fear, yet there is no reason for the sincerely pious 
to mistrust but that their courage will only grow 
stronger, their Lord draw nearer, and their vic- 
tory become surer, as their last hour comes 
upon them. 

" As thy days, so shall thy strength be," is the 
comforting and assuring promise. The Holy 
Spirit will strengthen the Christian in this his 
final struggle, as He had never done before. The 
blessedness of grace, the assurance of the love of 
God, and the infinite compassion of the Re- 
deemer, never seem at all so strong or precious 
to us, as when death knocks at the door of our 
quivering frame. 

At first there may be some fainting and mis- 
givings, even as the Saviour was troubled on the 



128 HEAVENWARD. 

Cross by His apparent desertion by His Father, 
but, even as soon thereafter, a holy calm of vic- 
tory gleamed upon His brow, and He peacefully 
expired with the prayer, " Father, into Thy 
hands I commend my spirit," such will be the 
experience of the dying Christian. As we bid 
farewell to earth, and go down into the billows 
of the swelling Jordan of death, the shining form 
of our Saviour grows visible, and placing our 
hand firmly in His, we can cry with the Psalm- 
ist : " Yea, though I walk through the valley of 
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for Thou 
art with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff they com- 
fort me." (Ps. xxiii. 4.) 

The prophet Balaam, moved by the Spirit of 
God, cried out, " Let me die the death of the 
righteous, and let my last end be like his." And 
no scene on earth, where sun is shining, and 
banners are streaming, and music's strains are 
waking the air, and all is life, and glow, and 
radiance, is more beautiful, and inspiring, and 
glorious, than the chamber in which the Christian 
is fighting his last great battle, and winning his 
eternal victory. 

We are told that when Lazarus, the beggar, 
died, he was carried by the angels, who had been 
waiting unseen at his bedside, far over the 
gloomy realm of the lost, to the shining Paradise 



THE BLESSED GOAL. 1 29 

of the blessed. And Paul, contemplating the 
resplendent closing scene of life, thus cries in 
rapture : " Then shall be brought to pass the 
saying that is written, death is swallowed up in 
victory. O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, 
where is thy victory ? Thanks be to God which 
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." (1 Cor. xv. 57.) 

A vision of this near presence of the awaiting 
Saviour, and of the triumphing heavenly host, 
and perchance strains of passing angelic har- 
mony, such as floated over the plains of Beth- 
lehem on that blessed natal night, are often 
present to the dying Christian, and entrance his 
departing soul, and fill his chamber with a glory 
that makes it the very portal of the city of God. 

The dying Stephen thus saw the heavens 
opened, and the glory of God, and the Son of 
man standing at the right hand of the Father, 
and lo ! as the vision fixed his eye, all who looked 
upon him, saw his countenance suddenly shine 
" as if it had been that of an angel." Well then 
may the sacred historian say of his barbarous 
death at the hands of his persecutors, that "he fell 
asleep y For what earthly violence could dis- 
turb so heavenly a serenity, or break the spell of 
such glorious spiritual rapture ? And this peace- 
ful and triumphant departure of the holy martyr 
9 



130 HEAVENWARD. 

is a symbol of that, which, to a greater or less 
extent, takes place on every pious death-bed, the 
seal of which is so often seen in the angelic 
radiance which still lingers upon the lifeless 
countenances of those who have died in the trans- 
ports of the faith. 

The final struggle of the Christian, then, is a 
great, and glorious, and rapturous victory ! In 
it death is conquered, sin destroyed, pain over- 
come, the grave vanquished; and darkness left 
behind ; and a fair, fadeless, and eternal morn of 
light and bliss entered upon. It is the victory 
of Faith, of Love, and of Hope. Let us, there- 
fore, with joyful confidence, hail the hour of our 
last and sharpest conflict, as but the summons 
to a victory whose blessed fruits we shall reap 
forever and for evermore. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CROWN OF LIFE. 

JKJAVING finished his race, and having come 
**J a victor out of the good fight of faith against 
all enemies and dangers, the Christian now enters 
into the heavenly rest. And when " the times 



THE BLESSED GOAL. 131 

of restitution of all things " shall be at hand, 
when the glorious morning of the appearing of 
Christ shall dawn upon time, when the trumpet 
of resurrection shall awaken the dead, and when 
the Church shall be led in her spotless robes to 
her Marriage with the Lamb, and when heaven 
and earth shall resound with hosannas of rapture, 
then shall be the coronation day of the saints. 
Then shall the Christian receive the fullness of 
that glory, and bliss, and honor which await him. 
Then shall the royal diadem which is to be his, 
be placed upon his brow. 

It is the crown which was promised him on 
the eventful day when he bid adieu to the world, 
and set out for the immortal prize. Then these 
words did the Spirit address to his soul : "To 
him that overcometh will I give to eat of the 
Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Para- 
dise of God." (Rev. ii. 7.) It is the prize which, 
amid all the depressions and discouragements 
of the way, has never ceased to cheer and com- 
fort him, and to gleam with unspeakable beauty 
before his eye. It is the heavenly reward for 
which his soul has waited and longed, and toward 
which faith has often lifted his fondest affections 
and his most ardent imaginings, as he lingered 
in this vale of tears. 

But now, at last, the glorious hour has arrived. 



132 HEAVENWARD. 

The long night is over, and the dawn of the 
eternal day breaks npon him. Tears, and sighs, 
and conflict, are now forever put behind, and be- 
fore stretches out but one dazzling way of joy, of 
brightness, of splendor, and a noonday of rapture, 
that shall know no twilight shade. 

It is a " crown of righteousness. " It is a 
" crown of rejoicing." It is a " crown of glory." 
It is a " CROWN OF life." 

It is " laid up " in the skies for us. Secure in 
the temple of the Lord God Almighty and the 
Lamb, it awaits the hour when the victor shall 
come to receive it. It is the crown that Christ 
the Lord will then give, placing it upon the brow 
of the faithful with His own blessed hand, while 
all heaven rings again with strains of welcome. 
And while eternity rolls on it shall never be lost, 
nor one ray of its lustre be dimmed, though all 
the powers of hell seek to wrest it from the 
wearer. 

Thus much the Scripture tells, but precisely 
what these figures mean ; and what the crown 
OF LIFE — the joy of heaven — will be, we cannot 
and we do not need to know. Enough that the 
noblest symbols of that reward possible to lan- 
guage, are given us. And yet these are mere 
luminous reflections upon our mortal sky, of that 
far surpassing and inexpressible glory. 



THE BLESSED GOAL. 1 33 

We only now "see through a glass darkly." 
But in that great day of consummation, we shall 
know all ; we shall gaze upon the unveiled Truth 
and Trinal splendor, and we shall drink deep of 
the golden cup of rapture, and, ever thirsting, 
drink yet again the deeper. 

We shall behold God ; we shall inherit the 
mansions prepared for us ; we shall take our 
harps and join in the hallelujahs of the countless 
throng of the redeemed upon Mount Zion ; we 
shall meet those whom we loved on earth ; we 
shall speed from star to star, bearing the com- 
mands of the Infinite ; we shall gaze upon the 
unutterable deeps of divine love ; we shall revisit 
our world, now renewed and glorified from its 
crucible of fire ; we shall dwell in the city which 
has no need of candle or moon or sun, but which 
is lightened by the glory of God, and '< the gates 
of which are not shut at all by day, for there 
shall be no night there ; " we shall tread its 
golden streets, and walk its sapphire pavements ; 
we shall pluck the rapturous fruit of the Tree of 
Life, whose " leaves are for the healing of the 
nations ; " we shall drink of the " crystal river 
of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of 
God and of the Lamb ; " and we shall hold most 
tender and loving and blessed fellowship with our 
holy Lord and Saviour time without end. 



134 HEAVENWARD. 

I heard the voice of Harpers, harping sweetly 

On harps of gold. 
I saw a crystal River — calmly, widely, 

Its waters rolled. 

I caught the flash of Turrets wrapped in splendor 

Of sunless light, 
Like to a star most lustrous, shedding glory 

Out of the night. 

I saw the ranks of Angels, silver-pinioned 

And golden-crowned, 
Swift, radiant Forms, that like a sunbeam passing 

Touched the bright ground. 

I saw the ancient Worthies, Heroes saintly, 

Resting in calm, 
Clad in white robes, out of great tribulation 

Bearing the palm. 

I saw a King in beauty, cloud-encircled, 

Shrouded in light, 
The likeness of a Throne, a Sea of glory 

Dazzling all sight. 

A Voice as of great waters — Myriads falling 

Low on the sod, 
A Silence — Harps struck louder ; Seraphs singing : 

GiyORY to God ! 

Such is the Christian pilgrim's Crown OF 
Life. He has patiently borne his cross along 
the narrow way, and he has now at last reached 
the blessed goal May God, in the riches of His 
Fatherly grace, grant that you, O beloved disci- 
ple, may so keep your eye turned heavenward, 



THE BLESSED GOAL. 1 35 

and so run the race set before you, that in the 
last day you may stand among this hallowed 
company, and that your joyful lot may be to re- 
ceive this diadem of glory. 

And to Him, who is the Author and Finisher 
of our Faith, and whose tender mercies are new 
unto us every morning ; and who hath bought us 
and redeemed us by His precious blood, be praise, 
honor, dominion, glory, and power, world with- 
out end. Amen. 



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